North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

I just reread the article on the brown mamorated stinkbug in the March
edition of GoodFruit and it was even scarier than I remembered it.  One
expert said other stink bugs are like guppies to this great white shark.  A
Pennsylvania entomologist described it as the worst pest the states ever had
to deal with.  A West VA apple grower sprayed 19 times (I assume with a
pyrethroid) and still suffered 40% damage to his apple crop.

The bug has already been found as far west as Oregon  and in most eastern
and midwestern states, so if it's not in your yard yet,  it will be soon-
you can almost be certain.  It is so devastating to such a wide range of
crops- from nursery trees to soybeans- that at least we can be certain that
any remedies will be fast tracked as much as possible and government and
industry resources will be working overtime to find these remedies.  Our
nations food supply seems genuinely at risk.

I only hope that the alarm is at least somewhat exaggerated.  Even if it's
not, I'm pretty sure solutions will be found.  It hasn't stopped fruit and
other crop production in the countries it has long existed and the knowledge
is there to isolate the pathogens and predators that will at least bring
this pest to manageable levels.

So keep the faith Don and trust in the government and big industry to find
answers that will trickle down to your small orchard.  I'm getting close to
retirement age anyway, even if I can't possibly afford retirement for about
two decades.  This could kill my business in a couple years, though, in a
worse case scenario.

I did see stinkbugs that looked like BMS fairly early in the season in my
orchard (nowhere else TG)  but later all I saw was the green ones so maybe
it was something else, but they were crawling all over my peaches.  At the
time I hadn't heard of BMS.  That they came and went might be a hopeful
sign.