Estimating monitoring trap plume reach and trapping area for nymphal and adult Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) in crop and non-crop habitats

Authors: Kirkpatrick, Danielle; ACEBES-DORIA, ANGELITA - University Of Georgia; RICE, KEVIN - University Of Missouri; Short, Brent; ADAMS, CHRISTOPHER - Michigan State University; GUT, LARRY - Michigan State University; Leskey, Tracy

Submitted to: Environmental Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/17/2019
Publication Date: 8/24/2019
Citation: Kirkpatrick, D.M., Acebes-Doria, A.L., Rice, K.B., Short, B.D., Adams, C.G., Gut, L.J., Leskey, T.C. 2019. Estimating monitoring trap plume reach and trapping area for nymphal and adult Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) in crop and non-crop habitats. Environmental Entomology. https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvz093.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvz093

Interpretive Summary: The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is an invasive and devastating pest of many crops and has caused growers have to increase their use of insecticides to protect their crops from feeding damage throughout the growing season. Increased use of insecticides has led to the disruption of sustainable pest management programs, has increased costs for growers, and is harmful to beneficial insects. An understanding of dispersal capability and behavior of this pest is critical for development of reliable monitoring tools and management programs. Progress has been made toward the development of trap-based monitoring tools that guide management decisions for control of this pest, but little is known regarding the area over which a pheromone-baited trap captures BMSB. In this study, we marked BMSB with different colors of fluorescent powder and released them in an open, mowed field in four cardinal directions at increasing distances from a pheromone-baited sticky trap. Fluorescent powder marked adult BMSB were also released from the edge of an apple orchard to examine movement into a preferred host plot. The goals of this study were to determine the maximum dispersal distance of BMSB, calculate the plume reach of the pheromone lure used with the trap, and to find the trapping area over which one baited trap captures BMSB. Adult BMSB dispersed approximately 70 m in an orchard and up to 130 m in an open field. Nymphs only dispersed about 40 m in an open field. In all cases, plume reach was less than 3 m. This translated into a trapping area of ~5 ha in an open field and 1.7 ha in an apple orchard for adults, and 0.58 hectares for nymphs in an open field. These results can be used to assess how many traps are needed on a farm and how the traps should be spaced so they do not overlap and compete, and can be used to further refine decision support tools to guide sustainable integrated pest management decisions.

Technical Abstract: Halyomorpha halys (Stål), the brown marmorated stink bug, is an invasive, highly polyphagous insect that can cause serious economic injury to specialty and row crops in the USA and globally. To date, H. halys has been managed with repeated insecticide applications. While progress has been made toward development of trap-based monitoring tools to guide management decisions, little is known regarding the trapping area over which a single pheromone-baited trap captures H. halys. Here, we conducted single trap, multiple distance mark-release-recapture experiments; results were used to estimate trapping area for nymphs and adults in sites without host plants present (open field) and for adults in sites with host plants present (apple orchard). Plume reach for pheromone-baited sticky traps was consistently estimated to be < 3 m. Maximum dispersive distance in an open field devoid of host plants was estimated to be 40 m for nymphs and 120-130 m for adults resulting in trapping areas of 0.58 ha and 4.83-5.56 ha, respectively. When traps were deployed in association with host plants within the border row of an apple orchard, adult maximum dispersive distance and trapping area was reduced to 70 m and 1.67 ha, respectively. These results indicate that the behavioral response of H. halys to pheromonal stimuli is influenced by the presence of host plants and that trapping area for pheromone-baited traps will likely change relative to the cropping system in which it is deployed. Caution should be taken when extrapolating these results, because the measured values may differ in other crop systems.