Michigan brown marmorated stink bug report for September 22, 2014
Print
EmailBerrien County continues to be a hotspot for brown marmorated stink bug activity, but detections have been reported in Van Buren, Ottawa, Ingham and Lenawee counties. Also, peach damage from BMSB has been confirmed in Ottawa County.
This is the eleventh weekly report of the Michigan State University Extension brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) statewide monitoring program for 2014. This monitoring network has been set up to provide early warning should BMSB start showing up in greater numbers in fruit and vegetable production areas.
A total of 13 nymph and 19 adult BMSB were captured in traps at eight out of the 63 sites being monitored during the week of Sept. 15-22, 2014. This is slightly down from the previous week, but new areas are reporting activity. Sites where we captured BMSB this week include one peach orchard in Van Buren County, one peach orchard and one urban site in Berrien County, and roadside sites near soybean fields in Lenawee and Ingham counties. Homeowners near Stevensville, Michigan in Berrien County continue to report BMSB aggregating on the sides of their houses this week.
Also this week, we received the first confirmed report of brown marmorated stink bug damage to late peaches in a commercial orchard in eastern Ottawa County. The grower who reported the damage found a single BMSB adult in the orchard where the damaged fruit was found.
The monitoring network uses pyramid-style, pheromone-baited traps set up at sites that favor BMSB, near riparian areas and along major transportation corridors in the following counties: Monroe, Lenawee, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, Ingham, Lapeer, Saginaw and Bay on the east side of the state, and Antrim, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie, Oceana, Newaygo, Kent, Ionia, Ottawa, Allegan, Van Buren and Berrien on the west side of the state. The majority of the sites in the network include farms that grow a variety of fruit and vegetable crops including apples, tart cherries, sweet cherries, peaches, blueberries, raspberries, tomatoes, peppers and sweet corn. In addition, some of our traps have been placed along roadsides next to field crops, or in urban and suburban areas where homeowners have reported seeing BMSB in the past.
To learn more about how to monitor for the brown marmorated stink bug, distinguish it from other similar-looking stink bugs, what crops it favors, and management strategies should populations reach the threshold where management is necessary, visit MSU’s Brown Marmorated Stink Bug website.
The weekly BMSB statewide monitoring report has been funded through Project GREEEN and Michigan State University Extension. This output is generated through a network of MSU Extension field staff and campus specialists. We would like to acknowledge the following team members and thank them for their weekly scouting efforts and input into this report: Peter McGhee, Michael Haas, Bob Tritten, Mark Longstroth, Brad Baughman, Carlos Garcia, Amy Irish-Brown, Lina Rodriguez Salamanca, Ben Philips, Ben Werling, Mark Whalon, Karen Powers, and Nikki Rothwell.
Dr. Gut’s work is funded in part by MSU’s AgBioResearch.
