Location: Vegetable Research
Project Number: 6080-22000-030-056-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2025
End Date: Aug 31, 2026
Objective:
Identify new pheromone compounds from live unmated pestiferous click beetle females, and screen these possible pheromone compounds to determine which chemicals or blends are attractive to pestiferous click beetle species. Evaluate the efficacy of new Group 30 insecticides (broflanilide and isocycloseram) applied in-furrow or as insecticidal small grain cover crops grown before root/tuber crops on subsequent wireworm populations and damage to the crops.
Approach:
Screening of putative pheromone chemicals will be performed in two general habitats: 1) native vegetation in sweetpotato growing areas where diverse and relatively dense assemblages of wireworm species can be found, and 2) agricultural habitats where pestiferous species of wireworms are prevalent, in multiple geographic and climatic regions. Synthetic chemicals tested using a randomized complete block experimental design. Pitfall traps will be baited with test lures (dispensed from rubber septa), and unbaited traps will be used as controls. A 4:1 mixture of water and propylene glycol will be used as a killing agent in the traps. Traps will be placed in the soil in crop fields or at field borders adjacent to non-crop habitat. Traps will be emptied of insects, lures and killing agent will be replaced, and damaged or missing traps replaced at weekly intervals from spring through the end of the summer growing season, which may vary with location. Trap catches will be identified to species and sex and compared between traps baited with a chemical compound and a paired unbaited control trap by repeated measures analysis.