BMS's were a terrible problem for me last year in Howard County, MD. My property is a stone's throw from a huge tract of woods, which is probably part of why I had it worse than others. The worst part was that BMS's laugh at bagged fruit. They just penetrated my apples right through the (plastic) bags, leaving the apple covered with dozens of brown pock marks that penetrated 1/3" into each fruit. Most of my apples ended up in the compost pile. I have some pictures of tomatoes with 10 stink bugs on one fruit. Towards the end of the season I just pulled all my tomatoes because every single one was destroyed before it even got to the point where I could pick it at first blush and let it ripen inside. This year I focused on root vegetables and early season stuff, as the BMS's were far worse at the end of the summer than at the beginning. The scariest part is they are warning that it will be worse this year than it was last year. I can't imagine.

I've been pretty busy lately and just catching up on some forum reading. There was a pretty interesting Webinar a couple months ago regarding new CCD research involving several universities. The Webinar was 30 min. long. The jist of it was: 1. There still isn't a consensus among on what is causing CCD. 2. Mostly it is thought to be a combination of factors with plain old Varroa mites being the main contributor. Cell phone signals are no longer thought to be of any significance regarding CCD. 3. The new research focused on Neonics. This idea is not new, as parts of Europe banned some seed treatments of neonics and did not see a subsequent reduction in CCD. CCD also occurs in areas where no row crops are grown within foraging distance of the bees. The part that is new is the study of the lethality index of some of the neonics used in seed treatments in conjunction with how the product is used and the lethal and sub-lethal effects on bees. Basically seed treatments are something fairly new. They been a boon to farmers as they've drastically reduced damage to crops from not only root feeding pests, but also pests that attack the above ground portion of the plants, thereby reducing the need for field sprayed pesticides. Two seed treatment compounds are basically used - clothianidin and thiamethoxam. Both have fairly long half-lives and are systemic products. Clothianidin is more lethal of the two, but clothianidin is one of the break-down components of thiamehtoxam. The problem is that because clothianidin does such a good job at protecting the plants, it's also around when the plant blooms. It's very very toxic to bees when they ingest the pollen. Another problem is the planters need to be cleaned of dust after use. Planters have built in blowers to accomplish this. Unfortunately with treated seed, the dust is mostly pesticide. It's a fairly concentrated mass that's blown out and can have high concentrations of the compound where it settles. Currently seed planter cleaning does not fall under EPA pesticide application guidelines. I look for this to change soon in the future. 4. The other part of the research focused on residential use of imidacloprid. Apparently this neonic is used heavily by homeowners and landscape professionals to protect ornamental shrubs and trees. It poses the same problem to bees as seed treatments. Blooming plants grown in ground treated with imidacloprid can (and probably will) have pollen toxic to bees. The issue is the sheer number of acres treated with these compounds. The land planted to seed treated row crops combined with the residential use of imidacloprid covers a sizable portion of bee habitat. Fruit growing (both hobby and professional) cover a much much smaller area and thereby have a much smaller potential impact. Clothianidin is approved for fruits and perhaps should be required to be re-registered to make sure it does not pose undue risk to bees when used on fruits. It is used after bloom. Because of this new research, I will probably never use Clutch (clothianidin) on my trees. Imidacloprid is approved for fruits but is ineffective against major tree fruit pests and is probably used very little except by homeowners. Thiamethoxam (Actara) is used for tree fruits and is very effective against plum curc and brown mamorated stink bug. It is used after bloom though, and limited to 2 applications per season. Not all neonics have the same effect on bees, but it's likely some people will lump them together. Other neonics used on fruit, acetamiprid (Assail) ect., have not been implicated. Acetamiprid is much less toxic to bees than clothianidin and is not used before bloom. Insecticides vary greatly on their insecticidal effect of, not only insect pests, but also non-target insects. There are broad spectrum insecticides like pyrethroids and organophosphates, but there are also more species specific insecticides like diamides that target lepidopterous moths. Intrepid (diacylhydrazine class) is so safe to honeybees, it is approved for use at bloom, yet is very lethal to lepidoptera. It appears that insecticides may play a role in CCD, but not all insecticides, and not even all neonicotinoids are at fault. Commercial beekeepers also use insecticides on their hives. Although I'm sure there are exceptions, most experienced beekeepers will tell you the days of keeping bees without treating the hives are over. Varroa mites have seen to that.

A few weeks ago, my fifteen year old granddaughter, the official garden photographer, and I were walking by some flowers when she called out to me "What's this thing?" Then "Here's another and another." She stopped, fascinated to observe that in the center of every coneflower and rudbeckia "Indian Summer" sat an ugly little bug, looking poised and ready for something important in the bug world. Since it was a couple of years short of 50 when I last attended college entomology class, I answered to Clare, "I think it's an assassin bug," and boy, I was dead wrong. On flower after flower, sat a lowly stink bug, probably wishing he were actually something exciting like an assassin bug. So herewith I give you Sir Stink on his throne, courtesy of Clare's photographic skills. Diane

Unfortunately they damage nearly every garden fruit or vegie but they do have preference. They love sweet corn, green peppers, squash, tomatoes, any kind of berries or fruit trees.. If you have facebook stop over facebook.com/stinkbugtraps I post pics and information all year almost daily about stink bugs and other invasive insects. Tonight we will travel out to an orchard that is experiencing high levels of damage to check our solar traps. Stink bugs are easy to catch at night with our light traps but another way to slow them down is remove their egg masses.