Pheromone traps and weekly bulletins to monitor the evolution and spread of the stink bugs in Verona and the surrounding areas will contribute to the development of effective defence strategies. This is the experimental project developed and implemented by Coldiretti Verona, AIPO (Interregional Association of Olive Producers of Verona) and Consorzio Agrario del Nord-Est (Agricultural Consortium of the North-East) with the technical management of the Agrea Study Centre and contributions from Cattolica Assicurazioni and Banco BPM. This plan of action has never before been seen in Italy, as the president of Cattolica Assicurazioni, Paolo Bedoni, reminds us: "Defending Made in Italy starts with defending out production. This is an initiative that skilfully combines innovation and research: we couldn't help but be present. For a company like ours, born over a century ago to protect farmers from damage caused by hail and fire, the agricultural sector remains one of the main businesses on which we are particularly focussed. That's why we support every initiative that aims to help the sector. As part of the continuous updating and progress aimed at innovation, we are pleased to have contributed to the creation of this dynamic app for monitoring the evolutionary stages of the Asian bug. We are sure that it will prove a useful tool to learn more about the threat posed by this insect and to be able to develop even more effective plans of action to combat it”. "By closely monitoring the orchards to establish the presence of the insect and its precise biological phases, we can identify the best time to intervene and the most suitable active ingredient - declared the regional President of Coldiretti, Daniele Salvagno -. I would like to thank the Cattolica Group and Banco Bpm for supporting the project: the defence of Made in Italy starts here".

The "Asian marmorated bug" is particularly dangerous for agriculture because its populations rapidly expand due to at least two egg laying seasons per year producing 300-400 bugs at a time, ruining the fruits and making them unusable with the risk of seriously compromising part of the harvest. Through monitoring using 25 pheromone aggregation traps placed in different farms located in the west of Verona, the project described allows us to obtain information about the infestation of crops and to estimate the presence of the insect more accurately than if visual checks were used. The analysis of the data collected from the traps is included in a weekly bulletin that also contains agronomic advice and is published every Thursday, from June to October 2019 by AIPO Verona as a newsletter on their website (www.aipoverona.it), as well as through the "AIPO" application for Android and IOS devices downloadable for free.