Insect trapping in Oregon

Insect trapping in Oregon. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Yesterday we talked about the gypsy moth trapping going on in Washington State and of course it is obvious that the pests have no idea about state lines so the Oregon Department of Agriculture's annual detection phase for bad bugs is underway with the placement of thousands of insect traps throughout the state.

ROGG: The cold spring, or whatever you want to call that, delayed the phenology of a lot of pests. So I think we are okay starting out a little later this year.

Helmuth Rogg of ODA's Insect Pest Prevention and Management Program says about 13-thousand brightly colored gypsy moth traps will be placed around the state. But there are other pests of concern as well, including the brown marmorated stink bug.

ROGG: This could turn out to be the bug from hell. Trees, ornamental trees, fruit, vegetables, you name it- it attacks it.
 
This particular stink bug has caused extensive agricultural damage in East Coast states and ODA will test out various types of traps to see which ones work best. As far as gypsy moth is concerned, only one was detected last year- the lowest count on record.
 
ROGG: In the long term, this is much cheaper, much more economic to spend some money to prevent invasive species from getting established in Oregon than do nothing and wait until we have a big outbreak. Then it costs a lot more to get rid of it, if that is possible at all.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.