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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 18, 2019)
NORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Tuesday, June 18, 2019 Researchers use tiny samurai wasp to control stinkbugs By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press CORVALLIS — The samurai wasp may be small, but it is a mighty assassin of one of Oregon agricul- ture’s most detested pests — the brown marmorated stinkbug. No bigger than a pin- head, the tiny wasp lays its eggs inside the eggs of stinkbugs, killing the host when they hatch. Stinkbugs first arrived in Oregon in 2004 and are a scourge to farmers, damaging high- value crops including wine grapes, blueberries, cherries and hazelnuts. Researchers know the samurai wasp can be an effective biological control for stinkbugs. A new study from Oregon State Uni- versity goes a step farther, describing how farmers can integrate the wasp as part of an overall management strategy. David Lowenstein, an entomologist and postdoc- toral research associate at OSU, led the study, which focuses on the impacts of different insecticides on wasp survival. His results found that some chemi- cals were highly lethal to the wasp, while others were more suitable. The study was pub- lished recently in the Jour- Oregon Department of Agriculture/Chris Hedstrom An adult samurai wasp lays eggs in a mass of brown marmorated stinkbug eggs. nal of Economic Entomol- ogy. Funding came from the Oregon Hazelnut Com- mission, Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commis- sion and the USDA Spe- cialty Crop Research Initia- tive, which is assisting more than 50 researchers across the U.S. studying ways to defeat the stinkbug. Like the stinkbug, the samurai wasp is native to east Asia. It was discovered in 2016 in the Willamette Valley, and since then OSU has bred colonies of the wasp in Corvallis and at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora to distribute to com- mercial orchards. “They are not available commercially,” Lowenstein said. “We’re the sole group that is rearing the parasitoid and trying to get it estab- lished in different parts of the state.” However, Lowenstein Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY Mostly sunny, breezy and nice Becoming windier and not as warm Intervals of clouds and sunshine Pleasant with partial sunshine Partly sunny and beautiful 84° 53° 74° 48° said it does no good to dis- tribute the wasps while farmers are spraying certain types of insecticides to con- trol other pests. For the study, Lowen- stein tested the effects of nine insecticides on samu- rai wasps in lab and field tri- als. He said neonicotinoids and pyrethroids were “fairly toxic” to the wasps, while diamide insecticides were less toxic. One reason for this is 70° 44° By SARAH ZIMMERMAN Associated Press 82° 53° 74° 49° 89° 56° 80° 52° 76° 51° 87° 59° 81° 55° OREGON FORECAST ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 64/51 78/51 87/50 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 85/56 Lewiston 70/51 91/56 Astoria 63/52 Pullman Yakima 89/57 72/45 87/56 Portland Hermiston 76/53 The Dalles 89/56 Salem Corvallis 76/48 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 81/46 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 80/45 82/45 82/52 Ontario 93/59 Caldwell Burns 88° 65° 80° 53° 106° (1961) 40° (1949) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 77/47 Boardman Pendleton Medford 90/54 0.00" Trace 0.39" 4.42" 5.02" 5.50" WINDS (in mph) 89/56 84/45 0.00" 0.05" 0.83" 9.33" 6.33" 7.34" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 78/44 78/49 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date HERMISTON Enterprise 84/53 79/56 86° 57° 79° 52° 108° (1961) 40° (1932) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 72/50 Aberdeen 82/54 85/57 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 71/52 Today Wed. WSW 8-16 W 8-16 WSW 10-20 WSW 10-20 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls 87/47 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today 5:05 a.m. 8:47 p.m. 10:10 p.m. 6:17 a.m. Last New First Full June 25 July 2 July 9 July 16 NATIONAL EXTREMES Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 104° in Needles, Calif. Low 33° in Yellowstone N.P., Wyo. NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY Brown marmorated stinkbug Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org Binomial name: Halyomorpha halys Appearance: Shield shaped and dark, mottled brown Diet: Primarily tree fruits Life cycle: One or two generations in cooler climates; up to five in warmer ones Origin: Asia First observed in U.S.: Mid-1990s 14-17 mm (Actual size) Sources: Penn State Extension; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Capital Press graphic FOR MORE INFORMATION More information about brown marmorated stink- bugs, including reported sightings of the pest across Oregon, is available online. Visit: https://agsci.oregon- state.edu/bmsb/brown- marmorated-stink-bug All seven of Oregon’s public universities will raise tuition PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST because diamide insecticides specifically target sucking and chewing insects, such as filbertworm larvae in hazel- nut trees, while neonicot- inoids and pyrethroids are “broad-spectrum” insecti- cides, Lowenstein said. “The application of this work is that, for someone who wants to benefit from biological control from the samurai wasp, first they’re going to have to time it around when they apply insecticides,” he said. “We don’t expect chemical insec- ticide use is going to go away. It’s just how can you integrate them together.” Lowenstein also sug- gested that orchards main- tain natural areas around the property where samu- rai wasps can retreat during crop spraying. Stinkbugs are found in 24 of Oregon’s 36 counties. OSU has already distrib- uted samurai wasps at 63 locations across the state for bio-control. The wasps are not harm- ful to humans and do not sting people, Lowenstein said. “There’s no way you are going to confuse this with a yellowjacket,” he said. “If you have a samurai wasp on your property you won’t even know it’s there unless you are seeing its effect, which is less stinkbugs.” SALEM — All seven of Oregon’s public universi- ties will raise tuition for the 2019-20 school year, with officials citing increased costs and less money than expected from legislators. The hikes range from 2.33% at Western Oregon University in Monmouth to 9.9% at Ashland’s South- ern Oregon University. Gov. Kate Brown had made education a priority of this session, repeatedly saying that she wanted to create a “seamless sys- tem of education from cradle to career.” The Democrat expressed dis- appointment that higher education wasn’t involved in a $2 billion increase for K-12 schools that legisla- tors approved earlier this year, and she has continued to push the Legislature to increase university budgets to avoid tuition increases higher than 5%. Legislators recom- mended a two-year higher education budget of $836.9 million. That is $100 million more than last biennium, though schools like the University of Oregon said they needed at least $120 million more to keep tui- tion increases below 5%. The University of Ore- gon, the state’s largest pub- lic university, will raise tuition 6.91% next school year. State universities can raise tuition on their own if it’s an increase of 5% or less. Any tuition hike above 5% requires a review by the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, which met last week and approved the increases. “None of us are happy that we will have to raise tuition by over 5 percent this year,” Jamie Moffitt, vice president for finance and administration and chief financial officer, said in a statement. “Unfortu- nately, we had little choice given the current financial situation.” Molly Blanchett, a spokeswoman for the Uni- versity of Oregon, said the school has to address a $34 million recurring budget gap and that they’re “fac- ing a very challenging budget situation” because of declining international enrollment and increases in employee health care and retirement costs. Schools that were able to contain tuition increases are doing so at a major cost. Portland State Univer- sity was bracing for an 11% increase in tuition, though the school reduced that increase to 4.97% at the last minute, thanks in part to the legislative increase in funding. But the school still has to bridge an $18.6 million shortfall next year and is pursuing 2% cuts across the university, according to a statement. Western Oregon Uni- versity, which will have the smallest tuition increase among the state’s seven universities, said it will operate on a deficit bud- get to avoid larger tuition hikes. “We know that defi- cit budgeting is not sus- tainable, but the universi- ty’s mission is to provide affordable degree path- ways, and we met the chal- lenge to keep tuition within reach for our students” said WOU President Rex Fuller. Speaker of the House Tina Kotek said last week that the $100 million extra is “a substantial invest- ment in higher ed,” and it’s unlikely that colleges will see additional legislative investment this session. “We got as much as we think we can get into their system and now they’re going to have to show us why they can’t live with it,” she said. Thirty years ago, the state paid for two-thirds of its universities’ operating budgets, with tuition cov- ering the remaining third. That ratio has now flipped completely. Southern Oregon Uni- versity, which will raise tuition by nearly 10%, committed to automati- cally lowering that increase if legislators agreed to give more money. But even in the most optimistic of funding scenarios, SOU would have likely had to raise tuition above that 5% number because of years of legislative disinvestment that have forced admin- istrators to run on deficit budgets. “No option available to us would have been pain- less,” said SOU Presi- dent Schott in a state- ment. “These are the best choices for our students and the university, as law- makers continue to shift the burden of higher edu- cation from the state to our students and their families.” The Legislature is expected to approve the final public university bud- get this week. Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. -10s -0s 0s showers t-storms 10s rain 20s flurries 30s snow 40s 50s ice 60s cold front E AST O REGONIAN — Founded Oct. 16, 1875 — 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211 333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211 Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed major holidays EastOregonian.com To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255 or go online to EastOregonian.com and click on ‘Subscribe’ East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday and postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Copyright © 2019, EO Media Group 70s 80s 90s 100s warm front stationary front 110s high low CORRECTIONS: The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818. 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