Climate change affects our agriculture in more ways than we imagine: Brown marmorated stink bug

Sometimes, it takes only one more generation a year to become a pest.

I saw a stink bug on my window one October morning while visiting my hometown in Northwestern Turkey. When I got closer to the balcony window, it was not one; there were many stink bugs, both brown marmorated and green stink bugs. This was surprising to me. When I was growing up, there were no insects around this time of the year. October was too cold to see any insects.

I was interested in brown marmorated stink bugs because I got a lot of questions about their control globally and whether Pheronym could develop a solution. However, it has not been a problem for Turkish hazelnut farmers yet.

I mentioned my observation to my mother, and she said, “Oh, those green bugs. They are a big problem for my vegetables”.

So I asked my cousin, who is an agricultural engineer that advises farmers in plant protection and diagnoses pest problems, about the brown marmorated stink bug. She said the brown marmorated stink bugs will probably be a pest next year. They should be hiding to…