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Submitted to: Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 2/14/2004 Publication Date: 11/14/2004 Citation: Reding, M.E. 2004. Tracking movement of black vine weevil. Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting. Oral presentation. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: The black vine weevil (BVW) is a serious pest of ornamental nursery crops and small fruits. In field-nursery production, current strategies for managing BVW are based on insecticide treatments that target the adult stage. Based on emergence of adult BVW from the soil, growers probably apply treatments later in the season than necessary. Adult BVW generally complete emergence by early July in northern Ohio. However, because growers are concerned that adult BVW will invade clean fields from outside sources, they often apply treatments until September. Our hypothesis is that these later treatments are unnecessary. Very little is known about the dispersal behavior of BVW. Unlike most insects, adult BVW cannot fly and disperse only by walking, which would appear to make long distance movement unlikely. The objectives of this study were to develop a method for tracking BVW and examine their movement in field-grown ornamental crops. To that end, we tested a technique where adult BVW were self-marked with various colored florescent dust. Grooved-board traps were used to monitor the marked weevils. Tracking by harmonic radar was also tested. Ten adult BVW were tagged with transponders, released, and then located using a transmitter/receiver able to detect the tags. Florescent marked weevils were recovered for about 1 month, although occurrence of marked weevils declined sharply after 16 days. Movement of weevils to adjacent rows (each row was marked with a different colored dust) was detected. The rows were about 3 meters apart. Ninety percent of the radar-tagged weevils were recovered after 3 days. One tagged weevil was detected 7.5 cm below the soil surface. |
