TRACY LESKEY, RESEARCH ENTOMOLOGIST, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE:
Brown marmorated stink bug is not a native species.  It’s native to Asia.

Some time in the mid-1990s it was accidentally introduced into the United States.  Here in the Mid-Atlantic, we have seen some of the most significant problems from this invasive species.  And in 2010, which was the biggest outbreak year that we’ve seen, we had growers that lost essentially all of their stone fruit crops—these are things like peaches and nectarines here in the Mid-Atlantic—and serious losses in the apple industry in this region.

It’s continued to spread throughout the country. It’s now been detected in 41 states.   

This invasive is both an agricultural pest, but it is also an incredible nuisance pest so homeowners in the fall have to deal with large numbers coming into their homes, seeking an overwintering site—essentially a place to hibernate until spring. You know, you go to brush your teeth in the morning and there’s a stink bug sitting on your toothbrush.  It’s not really [laughs] something that people want to see.  So, it’s been very frustrating for homeowners as well to deal with these bugs in the numbers that they can come in.

 
ROBERT BLACK, CO-OWNER, CATOCTIN MOUNTAIN ORCHARD:
Well, back in July of 2010 we were contacted by Dr. Tracey Leskey of USDA.  She said, “Is there any chance we could come up and survey your orchard for stink bug?

You have to really be ready for them because with that needle mouth part that just pierces through the skin, when you lose 90% of your nectarines because of all the little pierce marks, sting marks or eating marks, and then apples losing 50% of the crop, you won’t be in business long if you let that happen all the time.  

See our damage that we had in years past, I don’t want to see that again on my farm.
 

TRACY LESKEY, RESEARCH ENTOMOLOGIST, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE:
One of the basic biological questions and behavioral questions we had with this bug is their dispersal capacity, essentially how far they can move.  And so we know that that they stink bugs are strong fliers but we didn’t know necessarily know how far they could go.  So with the flight-mill system, which is basically like a treadmill for insects, we can tether them to that system and then allow them to naturally move.  And so they will make a rotation and that calculates a certain distance on that flight path – that circular flight path. 

If a bug if flying continuously for 24 hours, that translates into 75 miles in a single day. The reason this is important is the threat they pose to agriculture.  How far could they potentially move from to reach agricultural production.  

[LESKEY ON TAPE] So, these have been going for a number of hours.  And this particular, it doesn’t seem to have moved much.

[COLLEAGUE ON TAPE] No, no.  Even earlier this morning…

TRACY LESKEY, RESEARCH ENTOMOLOGIST, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE:
EthoVision is a tracking software.  In that system we measured both adults and nymphs in terms of their walking behavior.  We can also use it as a mechanism to understand how they respond when they come in contact with different  stimuli.  For example, we’ve put repellant in that system and so we see the insects immediately being stimulated and trying to essentially escape that arena when they are put on a repellant.  Or in some cases insecticides.  

Harmonic radar is a mobile tracking system where we literally tag the insect with a small radar tag.  It has copper wire with a small diode.  And then the radar system itself implements the use of marine radar.  And so we’ve been able to use it with brown marmorated stink bugs to understand retention capacity and understand how particular host plants or particular stimuli like the pheromone—how attractive are they in terms of retaining them at a particular location.

We know that insect development is linked to temperature.  They typically to a point develop faster under warmer temperatures. So this year, this summer here in the Mid-Atlantic it’s been cooler, it’s been wetter than in past seasons.  And it’s probably slowed their activity so we’ve had a smaller population this year than we’ve seen in hotter, drier years.

The long term goal is to try to reduce populations across the landscape.  This is an insect that has come in, it disrupted the system and it’s just caused so many problems.  And so for me, I want to solve those problems.  Anything we learn from the agricultural standpoint is ultimately going to help the homeowner problem as well.  So I absolutely believe we can solve this problem.  It takes a team effort and it takes a lot of work but we’ll get there because, um, I never want to see what happened in 2010 again.