Location: Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research
Project Number: 2092-22430-003-023-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2020
End Date: Feb 1, 2023
Objective:
1. Develop a mass trapping protocol for earwigs to support releases in pome fruit by removing them from stone fruit orchards where they are pests.
a. Determine which trap type catches the largest number of earwigs in stone fruit orchards
2. Examine potential of earwig augmentation in pome fruit.
b. Determine optimal release rates and timing to establish augmented earwigs
d. Test potential of using drones to release earwigs
4. Improve stakeholder knowledge on earwig IPM.
a. Summarize research findings at grower meetings
b. Conduct field days on collaborating grower farms to demonstrate earwig monitoring and effects on pest populations
c. Create widely available extension documents describing earwig biology, monitoring, and augmentation
d. Create an online video and photo library to convey project results and demonstrate earwig trapping and augmentation
e. Measure changes in grower knowledge with surveys throughout the project
Approach:
1a. To determine the most effective trap to maximize earwig catch, the collaborator will deploy four earwig trap types in stone fruit orchards in Medford (research cherry); complementary sites will be monitored in the Yakima area by the USDA. We will examine standard tubes and bands, and soda shelters, which are strips of cardboard rolled in a cylinder and secured inside a large soda bottle with the base removed.
2b. For pear, the collaborator will monitor 2 orchard blocks (Medford and Parkdale), with 200 earwigs released on a focal tree in each of six plots within each orchard and compare earwig numbers and pest damage to an additional six plots where earwigs are not released. This is corresponds to complementary work occurring in the Yakima area.
2d. The purpose of this study is to determine if drone releases of earwigs can be substituted for more time-consuming hand releases by checking earwig establishment post-release. The collaborator will compare hand release, drone release, and no release treatments in commercial orchards in Parkdale (pears); there will be complementary sites run by the USDA in Yakima (apples). We will release ~200 immuno- and fluorescent-marked earwigs/plot in June 2021 and monitor earwig establishment.
4. Information learned from the project will be presented to stakeholders in the form of scientific articles, a website, extension publications, and on-farm grower field days by all collaborators. Extension efforts will be led by Thompson, OSU.
