The Influence of Marking Methods on Mobility, Survivorship, and Field Recovery of Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) Adults and Nymphs

Halyomorpha halys (Stål), the brown marmorated stink bug, is an invasive and highly polyphagous insect that has caused serious economic injury to specialty and row crops in the United States and Europe. Here, we evaluated the effects of marking adult and nymphal H. halys with four different colors of fluorescent powder (Blaze Orange, Corona Pink, Horizon Blue, and Signal Green) on mobility and survivorship in laboratory bioassays. Adults and nymphs were marked using liquified fluorescent powder solutions and allowed to dry prior to bioassay. The presence of the marking solution had no significant effects on adult or nymphal mobility, adult survivorship, nymphal development, or adult flight capacity. We also evaluated the persistence of neon marker applied to the pronotum of H. halys adults and found this technique remained detectable for 2 wk under field conditions. Although both marking techniques are inexpensive, persist for ≥1 wk, and do not affect mortality, the neon marker method is more time-consuming, taking ~12 times longer to mark 50 adult H. halys compared with the liquified fluorescent powders. Thus, we would recommend using fluorescent powders for large-scale mark-release-recapture studies.