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An undocumented alien has been located in South Carolina and Georgia, according to entomologists. An invasive insect is flourishing in fields and on houses and researchers are asking for the public’s help in tracking the bean plataspid. It is the first plataspid (pronounced PLA-tas-pid) species reported in North America.“The bean plataspid has been confirmed on soybeans and kudzu in more than a dozen counties, including Oconee, Anderson and Abbeville, and on soybeans in Barnwell County; but it will feed on legumes in general, so it could be on other hosts, and it might be present but yet-to-be-detected in other counties,” said Jeremy Greene, associate professor of entomology and Clemson University Extension specialist at the Edisto Research and Education Center in Blackville. While the good news is that bug feeds on kudzu, the significant concern is that it feeds on bean plants, notably soybeans, which are a multimillion-dollar commodity crop in South Carolina. The state has approximately 590,000 acres of soybeans with a gross value of $139 million. “We are actively looking for this insect, and our S.C. Soybean Board has funded a portion of a project to help with the search for this pest,” said Greene. “If you see it in or around kudzu, in noticeable numbers on buildings, please let me know (greene4@clemson.edu or 803-300-1160). If you are able to provide GPS coordinates for kudzu patches in your area where you can sweep with a sweep net and confirm the presence or absence of this pest, your help will certainly be more than welcome. We want to define the distribution of this pest regularly this season and learn what we can about it.” There are pesticides that can control the insect: organophosphate and pyrethroid insecticides. The latter has better residual control, according to experts. In the Far East the insect is considered a pest of economic importance. Its sucking mouthparts tap into the stalks of legumes — beans — and feed on the nutrients. Purportedly, plants can be weakened, causing wilt and lower yields. Athens, Ga., is thought to be where the insect took hold, but researchers don't know how it got there. What the insect’s long-term impact will be remains uncertain, Greene said. “The insects are described in the foreign literature as stem and leaf feeders, and that fits so far with our observations, but we have not seen them on beans with developed pods yet," he said. The bean plataspid is also known as the globular stink bug and is a relative of stink bugs. Like its kin, when the plataspid is disturbed it secretes an unpleasant scent. (Image provided by Clemson.)
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