Location: Invasive Insect Biocontrol & Behavior Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-22000-315-005-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2016
End Date: Aug 31, 2021
Objective:
1. Develop and facilitate adoption of a risk assessment tool for peanut burrower bug, including a) identify cultural and environmental factors that contribute to peanut burrower bug damage in peanut, b) develop and validate an assessment tool for quantifying the risk of burrower bug infestation in peanut fields, c) facilitate adoption of a risk assessment tool to aid peanut growers in burrower bug management decision making.
2. Identify the attractants (sex/aggregation pheromone/kairomone) used by peanut burrower bug and develop and facilitate adoption of a trap for monitoring pest populations at the individual field level.
Approach:
ARS will investigate the attraction of peanut burrower bug to volatiles. The headspaces of male and female bugs and peanut seeds will be collected, GC-EAD will be conducted to select electrophysiological active compounds, GC-MS will be performed to identify the potential compounds, and field tests will be carried out to evaluate the activity of identified semiochemicals. If the interested compounds are not commercially available, they will be synthesized in IIBBL. Once attractants identified, different formulations will be developed and release rates will be measured. Finally, optimized dispensers will be prepared in IIBBL and sent to all collaborators for their field activity evaluations. Therefore, assistant is needed for one year to help Co-PI to pursue this goal, which will result in development of peanut burrower bug population monitoring and infestation detection tools, thereby helping growers apply insecticide in a timely manner. In addition, it will also enable further development of attract & kill & push & pull technologies for managing peanut burrower bug populations below economic injury levels.
