1. Home
  2. Question and Answer
  3. Houseplants
  4. Garden Articles
  5. Most Popular Plants
  6. Plant Nutrition

stink bugs on fruit trees.


Question
I have recently spotted orange stink bugs on my young fruit trees - how can I get rid of them???

Answer
Adults overwinter in weeds on the ground or in protected places outside the orchard like brush piles. They become active in April and feed on broadleaf weeds either in or outside the orchard, usually when the trees are in the pink to early bloom period. Females lay eggs on the leaves of host plants. Some stink bugs move into orchards as soon as they emerge in the spring and deposit eggs on fruit trees. When this happens, fruit can be damaged by feeding nymphs. They migrate to orchards in late summer from surrounding areas in search of moisture when vegetation starts to dry, and seek overwintering sites in October or before fall frosts.

You can use a soap (detergent) and water mix to spray on the bugs and their egg masses, or you can use the Telenomus podisi and T. utahensis, two scelionid wasp egg parasitoids, will help suppress stink bug populations for a natural bioligical control. The orange Tachinidae fly lays its eggs on stink bugs where the larvae
parasitize both the stink bug nymphs and adults. This beneficial insect also uses the pollen and nectar produced by trap crops.

You can also spray ONLY at NIGHT a pyrethrum based liquid spray, but it will also kill honey bees, so you do not want to spray when the tree is blossoming, and spray in the late evening.  Pyrethrum is destroyed by the sun rays.  I would spray in the winter after the fruit is picked, and again before the blossoms open in the spring.  

You can also use a dormant oil spray.  Use also when the blossoms have not opened, and in the fall. This oil will suffocate the egg masses.

These organic controls are available at http://www.ghorganics.com/page9.html
or
http://www.bizrate.com/pest-control/orange-oil-termite-control/

Copyright © www.100flowers.win Botanic Garden All Rights Reserved