As an important pest of cucurbits, the squash bug, Anasa tristis, has been a difficult insect to control. In southern Oklahoma, squash bugs can have as many as 3 generations each year, and this can lead to extremely high populations by the end of the growing season. The adult squash bugs leave the fields to overwinter in protected sites and return to the fields in late spring. These overwintered adults can rapidly invade a field of cucurbit seedlings and can cause stunted growth and death of the host plant. The overwintering sites have been anecdotally described, but these sites have not been systematically sampled. The overwintering and emergence behaviors of the squash bug were studied to characterize the movement of adult squash bugs during the late winter and spring growing season of 2003. 53 squash bugs were marked with paint in five overwintering sites, and these sites were monitored for movement. May 7th was the first day that squash bugs were found on sentinel squash plants near the overwintering sites. During the spring, over 1,000 squash bugs were marked and their movement was monitored in a field planted with 95 squash plants.
Species 1: Heteroptera Coreidae Anasa tristis (squash bug)
Keywords: diapause
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