Gardeners are warned to look out for bugs that destroy plants
GARDENERS are being urged to check their greenhouses for a destructive stink bug that can destroy their soft fruit and vegetables.
The brown marmorated stink bug not only emits a pungent smell when under threat but can also eat its way through plants such as tomatoes, strawberries and raspberries.
A team of scientists at the Scottish Government’s Plant Health Centre is urgently monitoring the spread of the bug, which can be transported across the world in shipping containers or on plants and produce.
The stinky creature – which can destroy a punnet of strawberries with its smelly secretion alone – is getting closer to Scotland, having spread from the Far East to Turkey and into continental Europe in recent months and years.
Now, gardeners and fruit growers are being told to be on the lookout by the team, which includes experts from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), the James Hutton Institute and
SASA (Science and Advice for
Scottish Agriculture).
Dr Andy Evans, from the SRUC, said: “There could be an issue in the domestic market, as well as the commercial market.
“The stink bug could come in on imported plants and foodstuffs – which is one of the routes for the stink bug to get into the country.”
Back garden greenhouses could incubate the stink bugs.
Mr Evans added: “What stops it establishing in an outdoor situation is the season-long temperature but in a glasshouse it is warmer, and not just in heated glasshouses.”
If somebody has some infested plant material from a supermarket or garden centre and they put it in a glasshouse and stink bugs start breeding “they could breed and subsequently spread”.
Mr Evans explained: “It is one of these invasive species which has a high invasive risk because it is very mobile.
“They can fly out of the glasshouse and go into another glasshouse. The worst case scenario is that it gets into a nursery and then those plants are distributed.”
The bugs can eat the leaves of crops, damaging them, as well as creating a damaging smell.
Mr Evans said: “The stink is a defence mechanism – it is a big issue with them getting into soft fruit. It secretes this hideous smell from its body, which will ultimately spoil the fruit if you had a punnet of strawberries or raspberries and one of these guys was in there.”
The team of scientists have monitored sites such as Glasgow’s fruit market and soft fruit producers by setting traps to determine if any are present.
Gardeners and fruit farmers should be looking out for them as well, and trying to catch one to report it Scotlands’ Plant Health Centre.
The brown marmorated stink bug can be hard to identify as several other, less damaging stink bugs are already here so the scientists have been creating a DNA database to help with a rapid identification of any suspect stink bugs.
Dr Evans reiterated that scientists don’t believe it could survive for long
This hideous smell will spoil a punnet of strawberries
outdoors in Scotland but it is in greenhouses, or polytunnels that they could establish themselves.
Dr Evans said: “The problem is that if they got into glasshouses or polytunnels dearly in the season, where a lot of the soft fruit is grown in Scotland, conditions are warmer and would allow them to complete one generation of their life cycle.”
He added that if they were introduced into a glasshouse or polytunnel this month they would have time to breed before hibernating over the winter.
As for the future, vigilance is the key. Dr Evans said: “With Brexit and now Covid who knows – when we are back up and running – whether we will have to import more plant material and so on.
“In Scotland they are worried about having enough people to pick the fruit so if that has to be offset by the supermarkets importing material from overseas then that is a potential route for these guys to come in.”