Alosa Noreen Akoth Oduor

Stinkbug is an important pest of macadamia. The study was to establish infestation density and qualitative loss attributed to stinkbug, farmer management practices of the pest and to rear the egg parasitoid in the laboratory. Farmer knowledge on stinkbug and its management practices were assessed using a structured questionnaire administered to 384 randomly selected macadamia farmers in Kiambu, Embu, Nyeri, Meru and Murang’a counties in a survey. Half of the respondents were male while the other 50% were female and half of the respondents were above 50 years of age while only 7.9% were youth. Farmers were aware of the pest problems which included stinkbugs, mealybugs and thrips in reducing order of importance and stinkbug was causing economic losses. 80 % used cultural means such as weeding and burning trash to manage stinkbug and less than 20% used pesticides to control the pests. The practices were ineffective and over 84% of respondents across gender were willing to adopt biocontrol agents for management of macadamia stinkbug. The study was conducted in three agroecological zones; (UM1), (UM2) and (UM3). Bi-weekly monitoring for presence of the pest, pest eggs and nuts damaged by the pest on Thirty trees randomly selected per zone for the study was done. The populations of stinkbug significantly (P<0.05) differed across zones with lower altitude zones UM2 and UM3 recording higher populations of stinkbugs compared to UM1. No differences in pest incidence and egg masses collected between UM2 and UM3.Trissolcus basalis parasitization was detected in orchards. The egg parasitoid was reared in the laboratory on Nezara eggs. Trissolcus basalis females showed a high (90%) efficiency in parasitizing Nezara eggs and they fully parasitized 59.7% of exposed egg masses. A strong parasitic affinity between T. basalis and N. viridula eggs was demonstrated. The presence of T. basalis avails a potential biological tool for controlling Bathycoelia distincta.