I was in some early planted soybean today at Milan. These were test plots that were at R2 (full flower), and they were loaded with adult green stink bugs. It is not uncommon to see stink bugs stack up in fields that are much more mature than other soybean fields in the area. Because pods are not present yet, there is no big hurry to jump out and spray stink bugs at R1 or R2, but unusually early maturing fields should definitely be on your watch list and be sprayed as needed if pods are visible. Remember that pods will show up first on the lower nodes. In some cases, early maturing fields can be used as as a trap crop … as spraying will eliminate many stink bugs that ultimately move to other fields.

• The treatment threshold for stink bugs during flowering and podfill (R1 – R6) is an average of 9/25 sweeps.
• Pyrethroid insecticides work very well on green stink bug, which usually composes the vast majority of the population. However, specifically use bifenthrin (e.g., Brigade) or Acephate if 20% or more of the population is composed of brown stink bugs.