BMSB smackdown: the use of woody plants in designing a new alien out of the residential landscape

The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB, Haylomorpha halys) is an economically important phytophagous pest that was introduced to the eastern United States in 1996. It is known to be widely polyphagous and highly damaging to field crops, home gardens, and commercial orchards. Its use of and damage to landscape plants and in nurseries has yet to be determined. In this study, we investigate BMSB host utilization and spatial and temporal dynamics in woody plant nurseries, with the ultimate goal of determining how to design landscapes resistant to this pest. To these ends, we conducted timed surveys of juvenile and adult BMSB across a wide range of potential landscape tree hosts. Sampling was spatially stratified to quantify edge effects and the dynamics of movement into the nurseries. We found marked variation in stink bug counts among tree species and cultivars, as a function of time, and based on location within the nursery. Trees differed greatly in susceptibility to BMSB; for some species, stink bug abundances varied among cultivars by over an order of magnitude. As in other field systems, BMSB reached higher densities on edge plants compared to those in the center of the planting block, and the strength of that edge effect depended on the type of nearby habitat. Based on these findings, we suggest that landscapes could be designed with those cultivars exhibiting some resistance to BMSB, especially in areas dominated by crops and other highly susceptible host plants.