Project Number: 6402-22000-045-01
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Aug 30, 2001
End Date: Jul 29, 2006

Objective:
With production of sweetpotatoes on the increase on small farms in the Delta of Mississippi, new knowledge is needed on the prevalence of damaging insects in this crop and the potential loss in yield due to their feeding. A 2-year survey of the species and distribution of wireworms and whitefringed beetles will be conducted to determine their intensity and distribution in Bolivar County, Mississippi.

Approach:
Sticky board and pitfall traps will be used to sample 6-8 fields of sweetpotatoes throughout the 2001-2002 growing season to determine species and prevalence of wireworms and whitefringed beetles in the area. In addition, sweetpotatoes will be sampled from early season through harvest to correlate numbers collected with potential damage to sweetpotatoes.