The European corn borer is a serious pest not only of corn, but the key pest of peppers as well. This is the first year of a two-year study involving inundative releases of Trichogramma ostriniae for control of European corn borer in peppers. Five locations within a thirty-five mile radius of Lexington, Kentucky have been chosen for this study. Growing methods vary among locations, in that some are conventional and others are organic. Each location consists of two pepper plots, a control plot and a release plot, separated by at least 1000 feet. Trichogramma ostriniae are being released at each location three times during the growing season in accordance with a degree-day model predicting egg laying of European corn borer. Twenty sentinel European corn borer egg masses are being placed on the border rows of both the control and release plots on the date of each release and again once weekly. These sentinel egg masses are being collected between 48-72 hours so that the percentage of parasitism can be determined. 100 pepper plants per plot are being scouted weekly for wild European corn borer egg masses. The objective of this study is to determine if inundative releases of Trichogramma ostriniae will be an effective biological control of the European corn borer in organic and conventional bell pepper production.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Trichogrammatidae Trichogramma ostriniae
Species 2: Lepidoptera Pyralidae Ostrinia nubilalis (European corn borer)
Keywords: sustainable agriculture
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