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The brown marmorated stink bug was first seen in blueberries in New Jersey at the end of the 2010, and many blueberry growers have since reported seeing it in and around structures and houses. While all the data and examples so far pertain to tree fruit, blueberry growers should also be aware of the types of damage and its severity.
The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), Halyomorpha halys, mushroomed into a serious insect pest throughout much of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, western Maryland and the Cumberland – Shenandoah area during 2010. The insect was introduced from Asia, and first found near Allentown, PA in the mid 1990’s. It has an extremely wide host range, which includes tree fruits, small fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, and seeded crops such as corn and soybeans. The insect feeds by puncturing the fruit with piercing/sucking mouthparts, and injecting saliva which allows the insect to suck up the plant material through its mouthparts. Fruit tissue at the point of entry and just below into the flesh, then dies and the rest of the fruit grows around it. This leaves a sunken area on the skin at the point of entry, and browning, dead tissue in the flesh. Early injury on stone fruit can go all the way to the pit. The tissue dies, and as the fruit grows, can form cavities in the flesh. Photos of adults and nymphs feeding on peaches, apples and pears can be seen in Figure 1.
Overwintered adults disperse from overwintering sites in houses and other structures, or protected areas near farms. They enter the orchard, mate and lay eggs. Nymphs hatch from the eggs and undergo five nymphal instars before maturing into adults. First instar nymphs feed on what’ s left from the chorion or egg shells. They then move out through the canopy in search of fruit for food as they mature through 4 additional instars. Adults mature, mate, and the cycle repeats. Unlike other fruit pests, after it arrives in the orchard, BMSB spends its entire life feeding on the fruit, and every life stage, other than the egg, causes damage. As the stink bugs become established in managed fields, they are heavily biased towards edge and border rows. In tree fruit this has resulted in higher populations near wooded borders and soybean fields.