Read the
magazine
story to find out more. |
A new technique developed by
ARS entomologist Tom Unruh will make it easier to track the green peach aphid,
which is, despite the insect's name, a pest of potatoes. Click the image for
more information about it. |
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A Little Bit of Egg Makes Tracking Aphids Easier
By Jan
Suszkiw May 22, 2008
The green peach aphid, despite its name, is a pest of potatoes.
Besides siphoning off juices from potato plants, the aphid can infect the
plants with viruses that cause an estimated $100 million annually in yield
losses.
Now, tracking where and when the aphid is likely to transmit potato
viruses could be easier to do, thanks to a new marker technique devised by
Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
entomologist
Tom
Unruh. His approach--which uses egg whites, plastic-mesh screens and an
antibody-based test--is still experimental. But, ultimately, information
derived from its use could help potato growers improve the timing of
insecticide application to deter virus-laden aphids from feeding on plants.
Unruh devised the technique to support studies to determine whether
virus-carrying aphids are flying into potato fields from nearby weed patches.
Existing methods of capturing and marking the dash-sized pests have been
difficult and unreliable, according to Unruh, with the ARS
Yakima
Agricultural Research Laboratory in Wapato, Wash.
His solution involved mixing egg-white proteins with water to create a
solution that can be sprayed onto potato plants or associated weeds like
nightshade. Aphids pick up the egg proteins while crawling over treated areas.
To track them, Unruh relies on wide-mesh screens secured below a teepee-like
scaffold that can be placed in or near potato fields. An adhesive holds the
aphids so they can be returned to the laboratory for analysis using an
immunological assay, which employs antibodies to detect egg proteins if they're
present.
In fields near Wapato, more than 50 percent of green peach aphids that
contacted treated potato plants tested positive for egg proteins. More field
tests are under way.
Read more
about this research in the May/June 2008 issue of Agricultural Research
magazine.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.