Pheromones and insect pests

Commercial vegetable growers face common threats to their produce. Among those pests of concern. Speaker 2: Brown marmorated stink bug and the group called cucumber beetles. I asked USDA researcher Don Weber about methods to combat these pests? Speaker 2: The pests. Insects very own pheromone and combining it either with plant based or other inexpensive attractants to synergize our efforts to use behavioral control make to manage vegetable pests. Speaker 1: Let's start with what makes brown marmorated stink bug such a threat to fruit and vegetable crops? Speaker 2: Apples, pears and peaches. It's definitely on, especially as they're maturing. Unfortunately, a lot of times that damage is hidden until you cut open the fruit, which is very unfortunate. It can affect soybean as well. Various vegetables, tomatoes, peppers. Speaker 1: Weber at Agricultural Research Service colleagues immediately went into problem solving mode Once the stink bug arrived in the US. Speaker 2: We're able to discover and synthesize the brown marmorated stink bugs pheromone. It was known from Japan that it was attracted to another bug's pheromone, but only at the end of the season. So for Apple and other growers, that is not good because it doesn't allow awareness and control in a timely manner. However, when we combine this other bugs pheromone with the true pheromone, we saw that there was a synergistic attraction. This combination of lures provides a season long, globally accepted, now available and commercialized lure where now, using the trap based decision support tools and even attract and kill systems, we can significantly reduce insecticide use against brown Marmorated stink bug. This scientific strategy may lead to a more pest-free future.