Author
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Leskey, Tracy |
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HOGMIRE, HENRY - WV UNIVERSITY |
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Submitted to: Journal of Economic Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 10/8/2004 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Insecticide applications to commercial fruit often are made according to a calendar spray program to maintain a constant level of crop protection. However, reductions in insecticide applications can be accomplished if growers are able to determine if damaging insect pests are present in orchards. Such decisions require the use of monitoring traps to detect presence as well as abundance of insect pests. Stink bugs are a serious pest of stone fruit and are an increasingly important pest of apple. Very little research exists with regard to monitoring traps for these pests. Therefore we explored the potential of wooden pyramid traps coated with yellow paint and clear jar traps to detect stink bug entry into fruit orchards. Traps were either baited with an attractive odor, an aggregation pheromone attractive to brown and dusky stink bugs (Euschistus spp.), or left unbaited and were positioned in the border row of both commercial and unsprayed apple and peach orchards. Yellow pyramid traps were placed between trees and clear jar traps were hung within tree canopies. Baited yellow pyramid traps captured the most stink bugs, while unbaited jar traps captured the least. Brown stink bug, was the most numerous species captured followed by dusky, and green stink bug. However, it is not known if these trap captures reflect true abundance of each stink bug species in fruit orchards. Efforts to improve traps for stink bugs in fruit orchards will require determination of species abundance (brown, dusky and green) through other more tedious sampling methods in order to validate trap captures. Baits for these traps need to be improved as well since the pheromone lures used in this study were only attractive to brown and dusky stink bugs for approximately 1 week. Inclusion of attractive odors released by host plants such as mullein could serve as bait in traps and increase power of these traps to attract stink bugs. Furthermore, simple diagnostics for identifying and separating damage inflicted to fruit by each stink bug species (brown, dusky and green) are needed as well. Technical Abstract: Pyramid traps coated with 'industrial safety yellow' exterior latex gloss enamel paint, placed between peach and apple trees, and baited with the Euschistus spp. aggregation pheromone, methyl 2,4-decadienoate, captured significantly and/or numerically more stink bugs than other traps evaluated (with the exception of traps in one peach orchard). Baited pyramid traps captured 2.5 times as many stink bugs as baited jar traps hung in the canopy, followed closely by unbaited yellow pyramid traps. Unbaited jar traps captured very few stink bugs. Brown stink bug, Euschistus servus (Say), was the predominant species captured (55%), followed by dusky stink bug, E. tristigmus (Say) (20%), green stink bug, Acrosternum hilare (Say) (16%), and other stink bugs (Brochymena spp. and unidentified nymphs) (9%). Stink bug capture by sex across all trap types averaged 38% males and 62% females for both brown and dusky stink bugs, and 31% males and 69% females for green stink bug. In comparisons of paired baited and unbaited traps, significantly more brown stink bugs were captured in baited pyramid and/or jar traps in commercial and experimental apple orchards. No significant increase in brown stink bug captures in baited traps was detected in peach orchards, however. Responses of brown stink bug to the Euschistus spp. pheromone lures declined rapidly after one week, indicating that lures need to be replaced more frequently or formulated in a manner to maintain olfactory responses to traps for periods longer than one week. Common mullein plants baited with methyl 2,4-decadienoate attracted significantly more Euschistus spp. than unbaited mullein, or baited and unbaited mullein mimics. |
