LOCAL

Stink bugs studied at Shepherd University

Richard Belisle
richardb@herald-mail.com

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — It might take a village to raise a child, but it apparently takes 13 farms in seven states, 12 universities, a nonprofit and the federal government to study the pesky little stink bug.

Research involving those parties to find ways to help organic farmers eliminate stink bugs that threaten their crops is under way at Shepherd University.

The effort to find environmentally benign ways to prevent brown marmorated stink bugs from damaging organically grown crops has been going on since 2013. The research collected will be compiled and analyzed by students in a lab at Shepherd University's Institute of Environmental and Physical Science.

Professor Clarissa R. Mathews heads the institute.

The Shepherd students work from their own lab, plus facilities at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, W.Va., and the University of Maryland's Western Maryland Research and Education Center in Keedysville.

The Shepherd lab is equipped with a special microscope computer system that takes photographs that researchers use to study the effectiveness of natural predators on stink bugs.

Students Samuel Woullard of Martinsburg, W.Va., and McKenzie Allen of Kearneysville collect predators like katydids, spiders, lady beetles and others to see which ones eat stink bug nymphs or eggs.

"Trap cropping," a second component of the research, takes place at farms — private and university run — including Redbud Farm, the Mathews family's organic farm in Gerrardstown, W.Va.

The study there involves planting border crops — sunflowers and sorghum, targets for hungry stink bugs — around plots of cash crops like peppers.

"There are more than a dozen such plots at Redbud," Mathews said.

Stink-bug traps equipped with a new synthetic pheromone that was developed by a chemist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture are placed among the rows of sunflowers and sorghum.

"The idea is that once they're among the sunflowers and sorghum, stink bugs would see the traps, climb on and smell the pheromone sexual attractant coming out of them," Mathews said. "We hope they are killed by insecticide strips inside the traps."

She believes trap cropping has potential for protecting commercial agricultural operations.

Richard Belisle is a reporter for The Herald-Mail. He can be reached via email at richardb@herald-mail.com.

Stink bug research at Shepherd University involves collecting predators from plants growing in the garden behind the Robert C. Byrd Science and Technology Center. Pictured from left are Clarissa Mathews, professor of environmental studies and chairwoman of the Institute of Environmental and Physical Sciences; and students McKenzie Allen of Kearneysville, W.Va., and Samuel Woullard of Martinsburg, W.Va.