Michigan brown marmorated stink bug report for Sept. 15, 2016

Julianna Wilson<jkwilson@msu.edu>, Julianna Wilson<jkwilson@msu.edu>, Michigan State University Extension, Department of Entomology - September 16, 2016

Nymphs and adults continue to be captured in traps located in southwest and fruit ridge production areas. Fruit and vegetable growers in southern Lower Peninsula should be scouting.

Nymphs and summer generation adults are moving into orchards in southwest and fruit ridge regions. Line indicates percent traps that caught any BMSB in a given week overall; squares indicate average number of nymphs and adults captured each week.

This is the seventh report of the Michigan State University Extension brown marmorated stink bug monitoring network. Traps were checked at more than 80 sites for brown marmorated stink bug nymphs and adults using pyramid or Rescue style traps baited with commercial lures. This week, 77 nymphs and 135 adult brown marmorated stink bugs were captured from 23 traps at 13 sites (see graph for season trend).

The majority of brown marmorated stink bugs caught in traps have been from apple and peach orchards in the southwest (Berrien and Van Buren counties) and fruit ridge (Kent and Ottawa counties) areas, indicating that brown marmorated stink bugs are definitely moving into orchards in areas where the pest is abundant. We have also caught them in a number of Berrien County vineyards, at a cherry orchard in Van Buren County, and at two urban/residential sites in Berrien and Saginaw counties.

Since nymphs and adults can cause damage when they feed on fruit, growers in the southern part of the Lower Peninsula are strongly encouraged to scout for brown marmorated stink bugs – if they haven’t in the past – based on where we know it to be well-established as a nuisance pest in homes.

Traps are easy to deploy and check, but the area of influence for a single baited trap appears to be relatively small, so it is important to place them near the crop and combine trapping with other sampling methods such as limb-jarring of fruit tree branches over beating trays or sweep-netting in orchard edges close to woodlots and riparian areas. Visual inspection of orchard edges for the presence of fruit injury, or for the insects themselves, is recommended, especially in Berrien, Van Buren, Kent, Ottawa and Genesee counties where we have known populations or where damage to fruit in commercial peach and apple orchards was reported last season.

Damage to fruit from brown marmorated stink bug feeding can be confused with several disease or nutrient deficiencies, depending on the particular fruit that is affected, so it is important to involve your local MSU Extension fruit educator to help determine what caused the damage or send samples to MSU Diagnostic Services.

Counties being monitored for BMSB in 2016 are: Allegan, Antrim, Benzie, Berrien, Clare, Genesee, Grand Traverse, Ingham, Ionia, Kalamazoo, Kent, Lapeer, Leelanau, Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Oceana, Ottawa and Van Buren. Traps are set up near apple, stone fruits (peach, plum, sweet and tart cherry), blueberry, grape, strawberry, a variety of vegetable crops and at several urban locations considered to be hotspots.

For more information about management strategies in fruit should populations reach levels that would require control, please refer to the MSU Extension bulletin E0154, “2016 Michigan Fruit Management Guide.” To learn more about how to monitor for brown marmorated stink bugs, distinguish it from other similar-looking stink bugs and what plants it favors, visit MSU’s Brown Marmorated Stink Bug website.

The table below contains a full listing of crop or habitat by county where brown marmorarted stink bugs (BMSB) are being monitored using baited traps this season as part of the MSU Extension statewide monitoring effort.

Crop or habitat where brown marmorated stink bugs are being monitored
Crop/habitat type and county	No. sites where BMSB traps are being monitored in 2016	No. sites where BMSB have been captured in 2016	Cumulative BMSB captured in 2016
Apple (40 sites)
Allegan	1	0	-
Antrim	1	0	-
Benzie	1	0	-
Berrien	7	2	225
Genesee	1	0	-
Kent	12	6	89
Lenawee	2	0	-
Livingston	1	0	-
Macomb	2	0	-
Monroe	2	0	-
Oakland	1	0	-
Oceana	6	0	-
Ottawa	1	1	26
Van Buren	2	2	2
Berry crops (blueberry, raspberry, strawberry; 6 sites)
Allegan	2	0	-
Berrien	1	0	-
Ottawa	2	0	-
Van Buren	1	0	-
Cherry, sweet or tart (11 sites)
Allegan	1	0	-
Antrim	1	0	-
Benzie	1	0	-
Grand Traverse	1	0	-
Kent	1	0	-
Leelanau	2	0	-
Lenawee	1	0	-
Van Buren	3	1	2
Grape (18 sites)
Allegan	2	0	-
Berrien	9	7	41
Ingham	1	1	2
Ionia	1	0	-
Van Buren	5	2	8
Peach (4 sites)
Berrien	4	2	12
Other tree fruit (pear, plum; 2 sites)
Berrien	1	0	-
Van Buren	1	0	-
Vegetables (sweet corn, peppers, asparagus; 3 sites)
Macomb	1	0	-
Oceana	1	0	-
Ottawa	1	0	-
Urban/Residential (5 sites)
Berrien	1	1	28
Grand Traverse	1	0	-
Kalamazoo	1	0	-
Lapeer	1	0	-
Saginaw	1	1	52
TOTAL	87	26	517

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).