A rise in global temperature 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 overwinter at this time of the year. They already had three generations this year. They are still not hiding to overwinter because the weather is so warm. Instead, they will have the 4th generation before it gets too cold. Next year, the brown marmorated stink bug will be a pest to manage. This is just like whiteflies. One year, it was so warm they had one more generation; the following year, it was a pest for hazelnuts. Rising temperature is increasing pest pressure on farmers.

Of course, this means more pesticide use. We need eco-friendly and sustainable solutions to deal with increasing pest pressure.

Author: Dr. Fatma Kaplan is the CEO/CSO of Pheronym and Activate-Berkeley Fellow & Berkeley Lab Affiliate Cyclotron Road Cohort 2021. She is an entrepreneur and an accomplished scientist with experience in both biology and chemistry. She has a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology and postdoctoral training in Natural Product Chemistry with a focus on isolating biologically active compounds. Dr. Kaplan discovered the first sex pheromone of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and published it in Nature. Then she discovered that pheromones regulate other behaviors in both parasitic and beneficial nematodes. Dr. Kaplan conducted the first agricultural biocontrol experiment in Space at the International Space Station in 2020. She has very high-impact publications, and her dissertation (beta-amylase’s role during cold and heat shock) was cited in textbooks within 5 years of publication. Dr. Kaplan worked as a scientist at NASA, the National Magnetic Field Laboratory, and the US Department of Agriculture — Agricultural Research Service. Dr. Fatma Kaplan and Mr. Karl C. Schiller co-founded Pheronym to bring nematode pheromone technology to the market and to provide effective, non-toxic, sustainable pest control for gardeners and farmers.