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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Crop Genetics and Breeding Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #315150
Title: Can we predict brown stink bug (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) abundance in corn using previous pheromone trap capture and early season weather data?

Author
item Ni, Xinzhi
item Cottrell, Ted
item BUNTIN, G. DAVID - University Of Georgia
item TOEWS, MICHAEL - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: Entomological Society of America Regional Meetings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/15/2015
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: not required

Technical Abstract: Brown stink bug, Euschistus servus (Say) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is a serious economic pest of corn production in the southern US. Scouting stink bugs in corn is time consuming and could be improved if scouts were aware of conditions that favored imminent stink bug infestations. Changes in seasonal brown stink bug population density was monitored using 10 pheromone traps in each of the three corn fields (approximately 0.4 Hectares) for five years (2005-2009). The 17-week monitoring period spanned from tasseling to harvest of the corn crop plants (i.e., late May to mid-September). Summary trap data showed two peaks (in early June and mid-August, respectively) in brown stink bug captures. These responses were modeled using stepwise multiple regression analyses. Weather data factors used for the regression included accumulated growing degree day (AGDD) with the threshold set at 10 °C, number of days with low temperature below zero, and accumulated daily high and low temperature and rainfall, respectively. Three parameters related to the stink bug capture (i.e., overall 17-wk mean, number of insects captured at a peak, and the week when a peak was recorded) were also modeled in the analyses. Results show that the weekly means of stink bug capture throughout the season was negatively related to the AGDD, whereas the number of stink bugs at the first peak was positively related to both accumulated rainfall and the number of days with low temperature below 0 °C. Early season weather data (the first 4, 4.5 and 5 months) could be utilized to predict the seasonal abundance (or the 17-wk mean), and the number of brown stink bugs at the first peak, but not for the second peak, in a corn field.