Raising a stink: farmers on the lookout for invasive species

Nov 02, 2017

The brown marmorated stink bug is known to overwinter in several urban areas

Staff Reporter

Farms.com

While farmers likely will not be working or scouting their fields this winter, they can still be on the lookout for a troublesome pest.

This invasive species, known as the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), tends to move into houses and sheltered areas during the winter, Tracey Baute, a field crops entomologist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), said in a recent post.

While farmers have yet to locate this pest in the province’s field crops, scouts in several urban locations have found established breeding populations, according to Baute.

These pest populations are shown as green marks on the map below.

Source: Field Crop News

Homeowners play a big role in searching for these pests, as the BMSB may survive in houses over the winter, Baute said in an interview with Farms.com.

“Having a good, in-focus photo of the specimen or saving the specimen to send to us is necessary for us to confirm identification,” she said.

Individuals who believe they have found a BMSB “can collect the insect in a vial or plastic container and put it in the freezer until it can be sent to (OMAFRA),” she added.

During the warmer months, the BMSB may find shelter on various hosts, “including a variety of fruit trees, berries, grapes (and) vegetables, (as well as) field crops including corn, soybeans and edible beans,” Baute said.

The BMSB is of concern as it “is very flexible in moving from one host to another, finding the ideal plant stage (it) requires to live.”

The insect may cause damage that “not only impacts yield and quality, but (also) allows the introduction of secondary pathogens to develop on the wound sites,” said Baute. “Often this injury is only noticed at harvest when it is too late to manage.”

Given the potential threat the BMSB poses to horticulture and cash crops, OMAFRA is closely monitoring the movement of the pest.

The BMSB can be distinguished by its smooth shoulders, distinct white triangular pattern on the abdomen and the white bands on the antennae, Baute explained in her post.

Source: Field Crop News

If you come across one of these bugs, Baute encourages you to contact the OMAFRA Agriculture Information Contact Centre at 1-877-424-1300.

You can also send a high-quality photo of the pest to ag.info.omafra@ontario.ca.

For more information on the insect, visit the Stop BMSB website.

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.