7-29 NWR Eliminating Stink bugs

7-29 NWR Eliminating Stink bugs

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
A natural predator of the brown marmorated stink bug has found its way into Oregon on its own and that could hasten controlled releases of the biological control agent to fight the invasive pest:

Chris Hedstrom, an entomologist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, is the first to discover the good bug, Trissolcus japonicus, in a cluster of exotic stink bugs set out as a trap in downtown Portland. It's the same tiny wasp that has been reared for the past four years by ODA in a quarantine facility at Oregon State University with the hopes that it can be released as a biocontrol agent to fight the stink bug: "It's interesting because we've been working on this for so long trying to get it released and then to find it in the field and to see that it is attacking stink bugs in the field, that's really encouraging that we might have something here that's going to make an impact on the populations of BMSB."

The stink bug is a huge agricultural past and Hedstrom says it's good news to find its natural enemy already in Oregon on its own. He hopes to complement them with wasps reared by ODA at OSU: "You know, you have these agents that are expected to spread on their own. But they certainly work faster if you can help them along. If you can take an insect that's doing the job in one part of the state, move it to a part where that insect doesn't exist yet, to get it going, that's definitely a help."

Elsewhere, according to myNorthwest.com The U.S.D.A. is planning to remove feral pigs from a wildlife area in Grant County, Washington by shooting them from a helicopter.

The state is closing public access to a portion of the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area for a month, beginning today, federal agents will attract the pigs with bait and shoot them from the air. .. a technique that has been used in Texas for some years.

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