Location: Application Technology Research
Project Number: 5082-30500-001-088-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2026
End Date: Jul 31, 2027
Objective:
Determine the effectiveness of management strategies in maintaining citrus mealybug, Planococcus citri, populations on greenhouse grown horticultural crops below plant damaging levels.
Approach:
The approach described below has been used by the cooperator’s research program associated with citrus mealybug, Planococcus citri, for over 20 years. Although the procedures described below are used to evaluate the effectiveness of insecticides against the citrus mealybug, the procedures can be modified to evaluate the effectiveness of biological control agents, such as parasitoids and predators.
All experiments affiliated with the research project will be conducted in a glass greenhouse by cooperator using coleus, Solenostemon scutellarioides, plants or other plant types (depending on the experiment). The plants will be grown for a designated period of time and will be artificially infested with a pre-determined number (e.g. 10 to 12) of citrus mealybug nymphs (2nd and 3rd instar) from a laboratory colony. The laboratory colony of citrus mealybug that will be used in all experiments associated with the research has been maintained for over 20 years on butternut squash, Cucurbita maxima at 20 to 24°C, 33% to 69% relative humidity, and under constant (24 hour photoperiod) light (LED or light emitting diode).
Whole plants will be destructively sampled at pre-determined time periods, and the number of live and dead citrus mealybug, and number of egg laying females will be recorded. Citrus mealybugs that do not move after prodding with a dissecting probe will be considered dead. The presence of male pupae or females that produced egg masses will be counted as alive because this indicates that citrus mealybug nymphs completed development.
Percent citrus mealybug mortality will be calculated. Citrus mealybug percent mortality data will be normalized prior to analysis using an arcsine square root transformation procedure. Data will be analyzed using analysis of variance with treatment as the main effect.