It must have been the parasitic wasps that got them under control here, it was looking pretty bad for a few years. I still collect praying mantis egg cases in the fall and hatch them out in the spring though, can’t hurt to have a large population.
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Can I get a hold of these parasitic wasps?
I’m not sure, they were being studied by the USDA for release but then they started finding them in the wild. Genetic testing showed that the ones in the wild did not escape from the USDA lab, they must have been introduced on stink bug eggs from China.
They should be in your area. You are talking about brown marmorated stink bugs right?
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I’m in MD. Red area of map.
Still see lots of BMSB.
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I get regular reports from Cornell on BMSB and have heard nothing of a successful organic control campaign. What has been the story all along is how erratic this specie’s feeding behavior is. They were only a major problem one season in one part of the commercial growing areas in NYS (a few orchards I manage were in this zone).
Since that season, they have often been a big problem as far as home invasions but they haven’t done a lot of orchard damage. They are not among the many stinkbugs I see feeding on fruit in my orchard.
I have green and squash stinkbugs in my fruit trees but not quite bad enough to bother spraying for them and suffering the potential consequences of using a pyrethroid.
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Don’t know about BMSBs, but I’ve seen spinosad cause high mortality in other true bugs, including harlequin bugs and squash bugs. Might be worth a try—especially with an added surfactant. Maybe a rotation with a pyrethrin (especially a pyrethrin-oil combo like Pyola) and/or neem/azadirachtin would help? Worth a try for those who prefer an organic solution, anyway.
EDIT: This site at North Carolina State lists Azera (azadirachtin + pyrethrin) and Entrust (spinosad) as “[o]rganic products that have shown activity” against BMSB.
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