In a recent statewide survey carried out by the extension IPM coordinator, University of Idaho, commercial potato growers expressed interest in implementing biological control as part of an IPM program. Current pest control strategies focus on maintaining populations below damaging levels with the use of insecticides. Treatment thresholds do not consider natural enemy populations. It is a common belief that the major potato pests have few natural enemies with little impact on them. However, there is no research confirming this. Lower profit margins in recent years, coupled with social and governmental pressures to reduce pesticide use, gives impetus to the implementation of biological control as a cost-effective practice in potato production. The first step in implementing these practices is to identify and investigate potential natural enemies of Colorado potato beetle and green peach aphid in southeastern Idaho. In order to accomplish this step, an inventory of arthropods was done on several commercial fields with three potato varieties (Russet Burbank, Shepody and Ranger). A total of eight experimental plots, with 1200 plants each, were evaluated twice a week from June 1 to Sept. 30 with the use of pitfall traps, yellow pan traps, suction traps, and leaf counts. Identified natural enemies and other arthropods, and their relative frequency in plots treated with and without insecticides are presented. The second step in implementing biological control will be to characterize the attributes, host ranges, and effectiveness of the most common beneficial insects found in the inventory. It will be necessary to integrate the effect of potentially effective natural enemies of potato pests with cultural practices, host plant resistance and selective pesticides.
Species 1: Homoptera Aphididae Myzuz persicae (green peach aphid)
Species 2: Coleoptera Chrysomelidae Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Colorado potato beetle)
Keywords: beneficial artrhopods, insecticides
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA