Refining the use of early soybean as a trap crop for stink bugs in Arkansas' changing soybean production systems

In 2004 and 2005, early-season soybean was evaluated in Arkansas production fields as a trap crop for a complex of stink bug species. In the first year of the two-year study, field-scale trap crops (∼ 0.5–1.0 ha) of maturity group (MG) III and IV soybean were planted adjacent to production fields of MG V soybean. Stink bugs were attracted first to the ESPS trap crops and were twice treated with insecticide, yet damaging populations developed later in the MG V soybean adjacent to the trap crops. Apparently, stink bugs migrated from other more distal ESPS and infested MG V soybean adjacent to trap crops. In the second year of the study, the experiment was expanded in size to a farm- or community-scale project. However, populations of stink bugs were not controlled. With recent expansion of ESPS in Arkansas, it may be difficult to use ESPS as a trap crop to lower stink bug populations across large enough areas to suppress subsequent populations in late-season soybean.