BMSB and Kudzu Bug Update, Sept. 4, 2014

Although numbers are still generally very low, our field scouts and others have found BMSB and kudzu bug in a few new counties this past week.  The eight new counties added for BMSB are Gloucester, Charles City, Hanover, Spotsylvania, Rappahannock, Prince George, Suffolk and Chesapeake (thanks Stan Winslow for the Chesapeake report).  The two new kudzu bug counties are James City and King William (thanks Paul Bodenstine for the King William report).  See the maps below for the most recent distributions. Although there may have been a few fields treated for these pests, as far as I can determine most have not. We know of one grower in Campbell County who had some threshold numbers but only in a few patches along one field edge.  He elected to spot treat only these patches and so far, our post treatment visits have shown that this strategy was successful, that is, no reinfestation and no spread.

Distribution map of brown marmorated stink bug in Virginia soybean, updated on Sep. 4, 2014 Distribution map of kudzu bug in Virginia, updated on September 4, 2014