Control effect on the brown-marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), by combined spraying of pyrethroid and neonicotinoid insecticides in apple orchards in northern Japan

Abstract

Control of Halyomorpha halys (Stål) adults by combined spraying of pyrethroid and neonicotinoid insecticides has been investigated in apple orchards in northern Japan in 2008 and 2009. Insecticides were selected to control not only H. halys but also the common lepidopteran pests Carposina sasakii Matsumura, Adoxophyes orana fasciata Walsingham, and Phyllonorycter ringoniella Matsumura. Dinotefuran was sprayed in mid-May and early July, fenpropathrin in late June, and bifenthrin in late July. H. halys adults were released into apple trees at 3–5-day intervals from mid-May to mid-August. In this spraying program, survival of the adults increased 6 days after spraying, but relatively few injury marks were noted throughout the growing season. On the other hand, in the conventional spraying program, the survival ratio of the adults increased rapidly 3 days after spraying—especially after the organophosphate applied in mid-May, late June, and late July—and increases in the number of injury marks synchronized well with survival in both years. This spray program reduced the number of fruit injury marks to one-fifth that of the conventional spraying program and one-tenth that of fungicides alone.