BOISE — An invasive pest that feeds on a wide range of fruit and vegetable crops and can cause severe damage in apples and peaches has been detected in another Idaho city.
Two years after the brown marmorated stink bug was first detected in Idaho in Nampa, another one of the invasive pests has been found in nearby Boise.
The insect, which is native to Asia, was first detected in this country in Pennsylvania in 1996 and has caused widespread damage in Virginia and other mid-Atlantic states.
“They have a very wide host range and they really can do a number on tree fruit,” said Doug Pfeiffer, an entomologist at Virginia Tech University, which is part of a multi-state project studying ways to control the bug. “They can cause severe injury to apples and peaches....”
ISDA officials believe a handful of the bugs were brought to Nampa in 2012 by a homeowner who had recently moved there from Maryland.
Click here to read more.
Latest from Produce Grower
- WUR extends Gerben Messelink’s professorship in biological pest control in partnership with Biobest and Interpolis
- Closing the loop
- The Growth Industry Episode 8: From NFL guard to expert gardener with Chuck Hutchison
- Raise a glass (bottle)
- From farm kid to Ph.D.
- Do consumers trust produce growers?
- The modern grocery shopper
- Beyond a burst of optimism
