Date August 28, 1992

Title of Project The Development and Implementation of Integrated Pest Management in Floriculture

Institution where work is being conducted University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8584

Amount of Endowment Grant$ 58,000
Covering Period 3/1/92 to 8/30/92

Anticipated Date of Project Completion/Final Report Indefinite

Individual(s) Conducting Project:

(List Project Leader First)

Michael P. Parrella - Title Professor and Chairman

Telephone Number (916) 752-0492

Kevin Heinz - Title Postgraduate Researcher

Ms. Judy Nelson - Ph.D. Student

Mr. Ian Greene and Mr. Charles Hesslein - Title M.S. Students

The Development and Implementation of Integrated Pest Management in Floriculture

Michael P. Parrella, Kevin Heinz, Judy Nelson, Ian Greene and Charles Hesslein

University of California-Davis

Progress Report to the American Floral Endowment, 8/28/92

A. Project Objectives:

1) Biological control–evaluate natural enemies of selectedfloriculture pests to determine their potential in providing control–focus on

whiteflies, aphids, and the western flower thrips.

2) Implementation of astatewide IPM program for chrysanthemums in California.

3) Biological studieswith selected greenhouse pests and their natural enemies–westem flower

thrips is the primary focus.

4) Develop data on the distribution and abundanceof whiteflies in poinsettia and begin development of a user friendly sampling

plan.

5) Continue research on performance of new and old pesticides forcontrol of greenhouse pests and determine their compatibility with selected

natural enemies. Included in this objective was development of data on

pesticide resistance which could be used to suggest pesticide rotation patterns

which, when employed, would reduce the development of resistance in the

greenhouse.

6) Continue compilation of literature relating to pests and pestcontrol in floriculture.

B. Summary of Work Conducted:

This project has been continuous for the past ten years and a summaryof work completed goes beyond the scope of this progress report. Briefly, the

work finished can be divided into ten areas: 1) development of a complete IPM

program for pests on chrysanthemums, including leafminers, aphids, western

flower thrips, spider mites, and beet armyworm, 2) development of sampling

plans (leaf samples and yellow sticky traps) for major chrysanthemum pests

(outlined above), 3) biology and ecology of major floricultural pests with

emphasis on leafminers, whiteflies and western flower thrips, 4) understanding

the taxonomy of leafminers and their natural enemies, 5) analysis of host plant

resistance in chrysanthemums and other crops, 6) understanding insecticide

resistance in the leafminers, whiteflies and western flower thrips, 7) data

generation involving efficacy and phyotoxicity to support registration of new

pesticides such as Avid. This has been done on a broad array of crops

including numerous bedding plants, foliage plants, nursery crops, carnations,

roses, chrysanthemums, gypsophila, lilies, etc. This also includes evaluation of

new pesticide application techniques in the greenhouse with an emphasis on

electrostatic application, develop data on compatibility of new and old

insecticides with selected natural enemies, 9) development of a predictive

system where biological control is made more practical for the floriculture

grower, and 10) assessment of the best natural enemies to utilize in a biological

control program against the sweetpotato whitefly. More than 200 publications

have been produced from this research (these are equally divided between

refereed scientific journals and grower oriented articles in trade magazines).

In addition, special effort has been made to participate in grower oriented

meetings in the state and around the country where this AFE supported

research is directly reported to growers. A listing of all publications and

presentations resulting from this project is available to anyone upon request.

C. Results to Date–particularly new information generated by the work:

Research on biological control of sweetpotato whiteflies has shown thatthree natural enemies have the most potential for control: the predaceous

beetle, Delphastus pusillus, and two parasites, Encarsia deserti and Encarsia

tabacivora. A method has been developed to mass rear the predaceous beetle

and we currently have this program in place with the California Department of

Food and Agriculture in Sacramento where they rear in excess of 15,000

beetles per week for our use. We have conducted extensive studies on the

biology and control potential of these natural enemies. In addition,

considerable work has been completed on compatibility from two perspectives:

1) can these natural enemies can work together to control whiteflies on

poinsettia and 2) are they compatible with some of the newer insect growth

regulators that may be registered soon. Studies with the predator Chrysoperla

spp. and the parasite Lysiphlebus sp. for aphid control on chrysanthemum

have been promising; this is an important part of aphid control in the IPM

program which has been initiated for chrysanthemums statewide in California.

We are working in Encinitas, Carpinteria, and Salinas. A fourth site was

discontinued because of the problem and concern over white rust. The fungus

Paecilomyces fumosoroseus continues to look promising for control of a wide

range of pests in the greenhouse; however, we are still evaluating different

formulations of this fungus because Grace/Sierra has yet to find one that is

fully satisfactory.

We have learned much about the biology and ecology of western flowerthrips on carnation–the egg laying, feeding and pupation sites have been

determined. This is of great use in monitoring thrips and in evaluating the

performance of control strategies. Of interest is that most of the thrips drop to

the soil to pupate although many do pupate in the carnation flowers

themselves. In addition, feeding injury on carnation can be very atypical when

contrasted with thrips injury to floriculture crops in general. Our sampling

studies with whiteflies on poinsettias have given information on the within

greenhouse and within plant distribution of the pest. By stratifying the plant

vertically, different life stages of whiteffies are can be sampled. In addition, the

outer breaks of the plant tend to be more preferred for feeding and egg laying

by adults.

New pesticides continue to be evaluated for control of the majorgreenhouse pests. We are concentrating on ‘biorational’ materials that

generally fall into two categories: insect growth regulators (such as

phenoxycarb and buprofezin) and botanical materials such as Margosan

(Neem). Results with some of these materials have been very encouraging.

Buprofezin looks outstanding for whitefly control and is among the best of the

IGR materials tested to date and NorAm (the manufacturer) is committed to

registration of this product in the US. A more traditional material, the granular

insecticide Merit produced by Miles, also continues to excel in the control of a

wide range of floricultural pests. We are in the process of evaluating many

other materials from NorAm, Dow, American Cyanamid, Rohm and Haas,

Whitmire, and Ciba Geigy. Studies have continued with resistance

development in the western flower thrips and we have confirmed substantial

levels of resistance to Avid. Resistance has only been detected in the immature

stages primarily because we have found that the adult thrips are not sensitive

to the material. That is, adult western flower thrips cannot be killed by Avid

regardless of the dose used. This is not acquired resistance as detected in the

immatures, but for some reason the adults are simply not susceptible to the

material.

Literature continues to be compiled–I have received the reviews of mybook chapter entitled Arthropod Fauna which will appear in Chapter 10. Part

C. The Greenhouse Ecosystem as part of the Elsevier Series “Ecosystems of the

World.” This will update all the relevant literature collected as part of this

project.

D. Future Plans Covered by the Endowment Grant:

Large trials are underway with biological/IPM programs in poinsettiawhere we will be testing the most effective natural enemies discussed above.

This is being done with cooperating growers as well as in my greenhouses on

the Davis campus. Detailed studies with many floricultural pests and their

natural enemies will continue–the more data we have the better we are able to

formulate control strategies either using pesticides or natural enemies. The

amount of time and effort that goes into studying biology in this project should

not be underestimated because a good portion of the four graduate students

supported by this AFE grant have basic biology as an important component of

their Master’s and Ph.D. work. The statewide implementation project in

chrysanthemums will continue and we hope to repeat this in another crop

either later this year or early next year. Resistance studies will continue with

the western flower thrips and we will expand this to include spider mites which

appear to have developed resistance to Avid. One outcome of basic biology

work with western flower thrips was the discovery of a nematode, Thripinema

aptini, in a rose grower’s range in California. We hope to explore the control

potential of this nematode in the coming year. Research with new ‘biorational’

and other pesticides will continue in an effort to generate data required for

registration. Compatibility studies with natural enemies will also continue.

E. Anticipated Benefits for Floral Industry:

This AFE project is designed to provide flower growers with componentsof an IPM program which can be applied in their operations for the purpose of

maintaining quality of production while reducing the pesticide use. This is

accomplished at two levels: 1) some data generated by the project is of

immediate use to growers (pesticide efficacy, information on basic biology in

relation to pesticide efficacy, how to estimate pest populations in the

greenhouse, etc.) and can be applied to production facilities without delay, and

2) other data is being compiled which focuses on the development of a more

complete system where biological control is a major component of an IPM

program for floricultural crops. While this data is not of immediate use to

growers (for example, some of the natural enemies we are working with for

biological control of sweetpotato whitefly are not yet available commercially), we

are building the knowledge base for a fully integrated pest control program that

can potentially be adopted by growers over the next few years.

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