PhD work is generating insights on integrated pest management treatments for hazelnuts
In recent years, the brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys) has become an increasingly vexing problem for hazelnut growers. This pest causes different kinds of damage —kernel abortion, early fall, cimiciato, etc.— at different stages of fruit development. In a recent study published in Horticulturae, Italian researchers set out to gain a better understanding of the interaction between the phenological development of hazelnuts and the brown marmorated stink bug.
Researchers performed field tests on San Giovanni and Tonda Romana cultivars (early- and late-ripening, respectively) to assess the intensity of cimiciato damage with different pest management approaches (no insecticide vs. integrated pest management). They also carried out a phenological analysis of fruits and monitored the stink bug species by trapping and plant beating.
The findings showed that, in the absence of insecticide treatments, the early-ripening cultivar sustained more stink bug damage than the late-ripening cultivar and that major damage seemed to be related to an early stink bug attack. The researchers concluded that integrated pest management treatments should necessarily be linked to the use of traps and monitoring of fruit phenology to obtain maximum effectiveness.
This study was carried out as part of a PhD project, entitled Development of Environmentally Sustainable Protocols for the Protection of Nuts (Hazelnut) for Industrial Production. This line of research promises to shed light on effective strategies for controlling this key pest on hazelnut trees. Click here to read the study.
Posters presented at the Conference of the Italian Society of Plant Pathology and the Italian National Congress of Entomology:
Preliminary study on the microbiota associated with Cimiciato hazelnuts