Stink bug pest 'could get to UK'

10 November 2014 Last updated at 15:19

An agricultural pest dubbed the stink bug could establish itself within the UK, according to a scientist.

Entomologist Max Barclay said it was "it is only a matter of time" before the brown marmorated stink bug arrives in the country.

Two of the insects have already been found on imported timber headed for Britain.

The bug, which is native to the Far East, has already reached France and Germany.

Mr Barclay, from London's Natural History Museum, told the Daily Mail newspaper: "'I think the brown marmorated stink bug will establish a population here. It is only a matter of time.

"It will make its presence felt fairly quickly because it comes into people's homes in the autumn and winter."

Its name comes from the putrid stench it releases from its glands when threatened.

The insect was first found in the US in the late 1990s, but has now spread across much of the country. Since then, it has become a severe pest of fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants.

Read on ...

Improved Stink Bug Trapping Methods

Jan. 18, 2013 — Baited black traps in a pyramid shape attract significantly more brown marmorated stink bugs than other traps, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists. Evaluating stink bug responses to different visual stimuli may help manufacturers design better traps for monitoring the bugs.

Entomologist Tracy Leskey at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, W.V., focused on visual stimuli that can attract the stink bugs to traps that will help farmers monitor the level of infestation in their fields and orchards.

In field trials in 2009 and 2010, Leskey and her colleagues found that significantly more stink bug adults and juvenile bugs, called nymphs, were captured in the baited black pyramid traps than in other traps. The researchers also found that more adults and nymphs were captured in a trap placed on the ground than in a commercially available trap hung from a tree limb.

These prototype pyramid traps may serve as monitoring tools to assess the presence, abundance and seasonal activity of pests and natural enemies to determine the need for insecticide applications.

Leskey and her colleagues also found that in 2010, 2011 and 2012, stink bugs produced two generations in one year in Kearneysville, based on the presence of eggs and newly molted adults in field cage experiments. Although it has been reported that these bugs produce only one brood annually in eastern Pennsylvania, it appears that in more southerly locations within the Mid-Atlantic region, they can produce two generations per year, according to Leskey.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130118112635.htm