DEVELOPMENT OF MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES TARGETING THE BROWN MARMORATED STINK BUG, HALYOMORPHA HALYS IN PEPPERS

This is a research project requesting $180,000 in P.L 89-106 funding over the next three years to develop management strategies targeting the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) in peppers. BMSB has spread throughout the east and portions of the Midwest and west. BMSB became a severe pest of tree fruit and vegetables in 2009 and 2010. Currently, no adequate pest management alternatives exist to prevent damage to peppers creating the potential for the illegal use of insecticides. This project proposes to develop BMSB monitoring methods, assess BMSB feeding injury in pepper, evaluate cultivar susceptibility differences to BMSB feeding, determine natural enemy species composition in different cultivars, and determines the toxicity and field efficacy of selected insecticides for BMSB control. Objectives 1 and 2 will be accomplished by sampling BMSB populations and determining damage levels caused by BMSB in unsprayed sweet bell peppers. Objectives 3 and 4 will be accomplished by sampling BMSB and natural enemy populations and determining damage levels caused by BMSB in a variety of unsprayed pepper cultivars. Objective 5 will be accomplished by spraying sweet bell peppers with different insecticides to determine efficacy in terms of BMSB toxicity and reductions in damage to fruit. We anticipate this project to safeguard human health and the environment by reducing illegal of insecticides, provide economic benefits by reducing the pepper damage caused by BMSB and promote IPM implementation by developing the tools that can be used by farmers to reduce damage caused by BMSB.