After scouting soybean fields across southeastern counties for the past several weeks, the brown marmorated stink bug has arrived in southern Lancaster County.

Brown marmorated stink bug levels were discovered to be above threshold levels in both corn and soybean fields. Field margins (20 – 40 feet) had significant levels of pests, while field interiors remained below economic levels.

As we continue into August, we are expecting that BMSB populations will continue to increase in soybeans. In fact, entomologists in Maryland are reporting that stink bug populations have jumped five to 10 fold in the past week at their monitoring stations, indicating that the summer adults have arrived.

Adult bugs have wings, which allow them to move around and invade fields and be detected at monitoring stations.

In Pennsylvania, we expect to start seeing large populations developing on the edges of soybean fields.

Considering that BMSB move into bean fields from the edges, this would be the best location to determine if your field is infested with the pest. Start scouting field edges that border woodlots and corn fields.