New, Improved Lure for Stink Bug Detected

Brown marmorated stink bug

USDA-ARS researchers have identified a chemical that enhances capture of the brown marmorated stink bug in pheromone traps when combined with other existing known attractants for the invasive pest. (Photo: Susan Ellis, Bugwood.org)

USDA-ARS scientists have identified a chemical that enhances the attraction of pheromone traps to kill the notorious invasive pest, brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB, Halyomorpha halys).

According to an Entomology Today story, the researchers have been able to increase the potency of pheromones that can be used in traps for BMSB, the invasive insect from Asia that was first found in the U.S. in Pennsylvania in the 1990s.

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“More sensitive lures can improve monitoring or biosurveillance tools for detection of target pest organisms more quickly and reliably and can improve behaviorally based management strategies such as attract-and-kill,” researcher Kevin Rice told Entomology Today.

Rice and his USDA-ARS colleagues, together with several partnering scientists, have described their efforts to improve an attractant used to collect BMSB in research published in December in the Journal of Economic Entomology.

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