Location: Horticultural Crops Research Unit
Project Number: 2072-22000-040-005-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: May 15, 2014
End Date: May 14, 2019
Objective:
1) Study susceptibility of insects to compounds (ie., insecticides or microbial formulations).
2) Investigate biological control of invasive insects.
Approach:
1) Compounds that are commercially available and in the testing phase will be exposed to SWD or BMSB. Mortality will be tracked each day up to one week. Insects will be given ovipositional substrates, and fecundity will be tracked for one week.
2) Sentinel pests will be placed in the field in predator-exclusion and open arenas. The number of surviving pests will be compared, and emerging parasitoids will be collected. A video surveillance system will be used to identify predators that can attack these pests. In the lab, commercially available natural enemies will be assayed for controlling pests. Field studies will follow with promising natural enemies. Amendment #1 adds funds to continue the current research objectives and will be used to run behavioral and physiological studies.
