Project Number: 3607-22000-010-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Jan 26, 2006
End Date: Aug 31, 2010

Objective:
To reduce, through knowledge generated by research, crop losses and damage caused by insect pests of ornamental nursery crops, turf, and other horticultural crops. To develop methods for the management of exotic scarabs and root weevils including procedures and techniques that will prevent their distribution to uninfested parts of the United States. To develop alternative management strategies for pest control that will reduce dependence upon traditional uses of insecticides, and lessen impact on groundwater.

Approach:
(1) Test alternatives to currently acceptable methods for control of quarantine insects can be developed using reduced-risk insecticides and various application techniques. Develop drip irrigation as a viable delivery system for controls (reduced-risk insecticides and pathogens) of white grubs in field-grown nursery crops. Determine if pheromone-based mating disruption can provide effective suppression of oriental beetle (OB) in field-production nurseries. (2) Develop a better understanding of the life histories of exotic scarabs in nursery crops, improved knowledge of scarab and black vine weevil oviposition behavior in nursery crops, economic injury levels for scarabs on nursery crops, and knowledge of dispersal of black vine weevil in and around the nursery ecosystem will lead to more efficient programs for their management in those crops. Ultimately, this information will lead to improved chemical-based management strategies and the development of non-chemical management strategies for these pests in nursery and other horticultural crops. Determine if the parasitoids T. vernalis can reduce populations of JB and OB in nurseries, and I. aldrichi can reduce populations of JB in nurseries. Pathogens such as entomopathogenic nematodes, fungi, and bacteria can be used to reduce populations of exotic scarabs and/or root weevils to acceptable levels in nursery crops.