Project Number: 5436-22000-012-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Mar 31, 2005
End Date: Mar 30, 2010

Objective:
Grasshoppers and other insect pests cause serious losses to rangeland and agricultural crops in the northern Great Plains. This project has two objectives: 1) to understand grasshopper, locust and Mormon cricket interactions in order to develop ecologically-based management strategies, and 2) to develop, implement and evaluate the impact of biological control for the wheat stem sawfly and sugar beet root maggot in annual cropping systems.

Approach:
For grasshoppers, habitat management practices such as grazing and fire will be used to minimize variation in grasshopper populations around lower average densities. The reciprocal interactions among grasshoppers and plant communities will also be investigated. The efficacy of existing microbial agents for grasshoppers will be improved to make rangeland application practical. The environmental cues and behavioral interactions that drive Mormon cricket migratory bands will be investigated. Safe and effective natural enemies for the wheat stem sawfly will be developed and released. Sugar beet root maggot management will be developed that integrates microbial control with other control strategies.