An end in sight for BMSB?

Over the past several months, there's been what you might call an "outbreak of hope" with regard to introduced species, and including the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug. Some have hypothesized that the violent, cold winter in a good deal of the US this year might spell "curtains" for species introduced from warmer climes, organisms that may lack the adaptations to survive the cold months in North America. This hopeful scenario has been addressed with a good deal of skepticism, in that many insects have a "superpower" for over wintering, a physiological trait known as "vitrification". In this instance the sugars and proteins in an insect's bodily fluids prevent the formation of ice crystals at below-freezing temps; these fluids become glass-like, or "vitrified". Whether any or all of our introduced, outdoor insect pests have this ability may be something we know soon enough. Meantime, laboratory entomologists have been working to find biocontrol weapons (species that kill the pests). In the case of the BMSB, efforts to implement a parasitic wasp species from Asia are looking promising. Stay tuned, and please read this brief report:: https://www.kqed.org/science/1937639/samurai-wasps-say-smell-ya-later-stink-bugs?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=pubmedia&utm_campaign=DL_stinkbugs&fbclid=IwAR0DRjWvF34LV3TFWOpr4x_bzhGR1FYu99pqIr5P3GdusM_tdr-8Qf0Kc2s

Posted on March 15, 2019 03:17 AM by jbryant