Click here for PMRU Mission Statement
 

NPARL's Pest Management Research Unit (PMRU) includes 8 scientists and more than 16 technicians and seasonal staff. Together with a global network of collaborators, the PMRU is focused on solving key pest and weed problems. The emphasis is on developing and implementing biological and cultural management strategies that enhance profitability and environmental quality. Research is conducted under two projects: ecology and management of key insect pests, and biological control of invasive weeds. The insect pests currently being investigated are grasshoppers, Mormon cricket, sugarbeet root maggot and wheat stem sawfly. Targets for weed biological control research include leafy spurge, knapweeds, saltcedar, white top, and orange hawkweed. All of the research targets, both insects and weeds, share a number of common features: each is a significant constraint to agriculture and causes millions of dollars in annual losses or damage; each is widespread and occurs across the region or across the country; and each has proven difficult or costly to control with current technology.

Producers and stakeholders have identified grasshoppers, Mormon crickets, wheat stem sawfly and sugar beet root maggot as high priority insect pests, causing significant damage or losses and lacking effective, economical control measures. Research in this project focuses on developing the biological and ecological knowledge needed for efficacious, environmentally-sound and safe management of these pests. Pest management, particularly in natural and low-input, low-value agroecosystems, can be viewed as a three-tier system of prevention, intervention and suppression. Research investments have historically focused on suppression. This project seeks to develop preventative cultural strategies and biological interventions to maintain these pests at levels below the need for suppressive tactics.

One component of this research focuses on understanding grasshopper and Mormon cricket ecological interactions as a foundation for developing sound management practices. Understanding grasshopper responses to controlled fire and grazing strategies, host plant selection behavior, and their role in nutrient cycling and rangeland productivity, as well as Mormon cricket band movement will lead to the development of preventative control strategies. Another area of research is working to improve microbial control of grasshoppers and Mormon crickets on rangeland, providing an additional intervention tool for pest management. Research into the biological control of the wheat stem sawfly and sugar beet root maggot is also being conducted in this project. These biological interventions will utilize Asian parasitoids for the wheat stem sawfly and integrate microbial control of sugar beet root maggot within a holistic sugar beet production system.

Exotic invasive weeds are estimated to cause the US about $27 billion annually in economic losses, in addition to environmental impacts ranging from displacement of species of conservation concern to altered ecosystem functions. Biologically-based control methods can provide cost effective, sustainable means of limiting the adverse impacts of invasive plants over extensive rangeland and natural areas. Our studies focus on increasing the success of biological control efforts through better scientific understanding of: mechanisms underlying the impact of agents and patterns of weed and agent dispersal; genetic variation within target weeds and biological control agents; evolutionary relationships of target weeds and agents; synergisms between plant pathogens, deleterious microbes, and arthropod agents; direct and indirect effects of biological control introductions on non-target organisms; environmental factors affecting weed and biological control agent dynamics and invasion risk; and follow-on effects following suppression of weeds by biological control agents. Anticipated products of our project include new biological control agents, improved systematic and phylo-geographic understanding of target weeds and control agents, improved systems for assessing and monitoring weed and insect populations; elucidation of factors and mechanisms limiting the establishment and success of biological control releases. This will benefit land managers, users of public lands, the general public, and the scientific community in the fields of invasive plant ecology, systematics and biological control.
 

NPARL   1500 North Central Avenue,  Sidney, MT 59270 PH: 406.433.2020 FAX: 406.433.5038