Last summer we captured an important biological control agent, a parasitoid wasp, that uses the eggs of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) for its own reproductive success. This tiny wasp, is half the size of a pencil tip, capable of laying its eggs in the eggs of BMSB. We were able to entice this newly invasive insect to lay its eggs in the sentinel BMSB eggs we provided along the wooded edge of an organic Jalapeno Pepper planting in Marlboro NY. Once we reared the wasp out of these eggs at the Hudson Valley Research Laboratory in Highland, NY, specimens were sent to USDA, and to our amazement, it was confirmed as the Samauri Wasp, Trissolcus japonicus.
Trissolcus-japonicus.Image: Elijah Talamas, USNM
More importantly, this parasitoid can save fruit and vegetable farmers millions of dollars in management costs and yearly loss of crops as BMSB populations decline.
If we can distribute and establish the wasp in NY, it will be the David and Goliath story of the decade.
The project we are conducting is two fold. First we need everyone’s help to locate the BMSB in the US. We are doing this by creating a National Citizen Science Project to locate the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug within the continental US. The attached PDF file and web site links embedded in the PDF describe the how’s and whys.
Parasitism of BMSB eggs by Trissolcus japonicus
You can help by letting us know where the insect is this spring. Sign on to the National March Madness Citizen Science Project to put your BMSB in your homes on the map!