The consperse stink bug, Euschistus conspersus Uhler, has emerged as an important pest of pome fruit production in north central Washington in the past decade. Crop losses of greater than 10% have been reported from many orchards and some fruit packing facilities have rated stink bug damage as being a more serious problem than codling moth, yet relatively little is known about the habits of this insect. Management of this pest has been difficult as a result. The attraction of E. conspersus to synthetic sources of the aggregation pheromone, methyl (2E,4Z)-decadienoate, was characterized in a series of field and laboratory experiments. We found E. conspersus responds rapidly to the presence of aggregation pheromone when associated with mullein (Verbascum thapsus L.), an important host plant, and we empirically determined the pheromone release rate that optimizes aggregation behavior. In addition we found that a novel combination of salts in solution can act as a feeding stimulus and arrestant to E. conspersus. The development of efforts to incorporate the aggregation pheromone, feeding stimulant/arrestant and a contact insecticide into a behavior-based attract-and-kill system is discussed.
Species 1: Hemiptera Pentatomidae Euschistus conspersus (consperse stink bug)
Keywords: aggregation, arrestant
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA