During feeding they also inject chemicals that greatly reduce the baking quality of flour made from damaged wheat.
Large outbreaks of sunn pests generally occur every 6 to 8 years and can potentially cause yield losses of tens of millions of dollars.
Several strains of entomopathogenic fungi have been isolated from insects in their over wintering sites in Turkey, Syria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Russia.
In laboratory bioassays, they were tested against sunn pests, tarnished plant bug and western flower thrips.
The next step in the development of these biological agents is to determine at what stage in the pests' life cycle fungi could best be used.