Scientists borrowed techniques from aquatic scientists to help stop the
invasion of brown marmorated stinkbug, which infests apples, peaches,
tomatoes, and other crops in North America. In a study published in
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, it was reported that the
scientists recovered traces of the pest's DNA in the water used by farmers
to rinse their produce. This sampling of the DNA revealed the bug's cryptic
presence on farms even before conventional insect traps could detect.



Rafael Valentin, agricultural scientist at Rutgers University and lead
author of the study, said that the key to stopping the bug's menace is early
detection. They got the solution from the farmers' own chain of operations.
The researchers simply got rinse water samples from the farmers and detected
the DNA of the bugs right before they got them in the traps. According to
the researchers, the new method could revolutionize agricultural pest
surveillance.

[www.scientificamerican.com]
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