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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #238835
Title: Stink bugs

Author
item Brown, Mark

Submitted to: Compendium
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/10/2009
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Stink bugs can cause serious damage to apple and pear fruit at harvest. Feeding on the maturing fruit results in a puncture wound with a depressed and discolored blemish on the surface. The fruit flesh under the damage site is brown and corky. There are currently four major species of stink bugs causing damage to apples: brown stink bug, ducky stink bug, green stink bug, and consperse stink bug. There is also a fifth species that is threatening fruit production, the brown marmorated stink bug which was introduced into Pennsylvania in 1999 and is spreading through the mid-Atlantic states and causing damage to apples and other fruit. Chemical control is best done with pyrethroid sprays but these are not reliable. Habitat management through the destruction of alternative habitat sites can also reduce the damage done by stink bugs.