Perspectives on Pest Stink Bugs Research and Management in Agriculture

The control strategies mostly used to manage stink bugs pests of agriculture are still mostly based on the application of traditional chemical insecticides. The overuse of these chemicals to control stink bugs show several side effects that disrupt the equilibrium of the entomophauna of agroecosystems. This causes outbreaks of secondary pests, selection of resistant stink bug populations, detrimental effects to pollinators and biocontrol agents, not counting the negative impact on the environment and human health in general. Therefore, in order to manage stink bugs, the use of traditional insecticides should be mitigated given place to other more ecological sound strategies. These include biological control (conservation and augmentative use of parasitoids, entomopathogens and predators); host plant resistance; plant derived insecticides; RNAi and CRISPR based control strategies; and use of low impact alternative products with insecticidal action applied based upon the adoption of economic thresholds levels inside an integrated pest management (IPM) approach. In this concluding chapter those perspectives on pest stink bugs management in agriculture and future research will be presented briefly and discussed further.