Posts Tagged: pest control

Better Pest Control?

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ARS News Service A New Technology for Environmentally Safe Pest Control Discovered Inside Insect Cells For media inquiries contact: Janice López-Muñoz, (301) 793-7007 August 27, 2021 If you feel you are in a continuous search to have a fire ant free home lawn, you are not alone. These invasive and common insect pests are difficult to control and come back as uninvited guests over and over. The good news is that USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists, recently discovered a new technology that is safer than pesticides to control fire ants and keep them away. The technology, known as "receptor interference" (RECEPTOR-i), disrupts the vital processes (e.g. feeding, digestion, and development) needed for fire ants to survive, resulting in a natural biological control strategy. "The concept and procedure for RECEPTOR-i has been developed over years," said Man-Yeon Choi, Research Entomologist at the ARS Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory in Corvallis, OR. "Now it is a proven technology that will serve as a model for other pest management strategies such as for spotted wing drosophila, thrips and pest slugs." The research published by Biomolecules, establishes how RECEPTOR-i technology uses the fire ants own cell components to target and screen for the small proteins needed to disrupt the insect's vital processes resulting in negative effects on their survival. Using the insects own cells is key to the success of RECEPTOR-i, since those small proteins can be obtained within 2-3 weeks versus other pest control strategy approaches that take longer and are more expensive. "The RECEPTOR-i active ingredients are biodegradable, having no environmental impact and since it is species specific, it is not expected to affect other insects," said Robert Vander Meer, Research Leader at the ARS Imported Fire Ant and Household Insects Research Laboratory in Gainesville, FL. "This technology is broadly applicable to animal pests and the speed of discovery makes it ideal for developing a rapid control response to new invasive insects." The use of this natural pest control technology will depend on the target insect. In the case of fire ants, it will be put together in a sucrose solution and presented for feeding in a bait station. For other pest insects the application of this technology will depend on the target insect's feeding type, e.g., chewing, caterpillars, piercing or sucking, mosquitoes and crop pest insects. Fire ant control costs American households billions of dollars every year, hence developing effective and safer pest control strategies will be a great benefit to families and other economic sectors affected by fire ants. More research will take place for field experiments that will provide the data needed to stimulate commercial interest and get this technology to homeowners and others needing fire ant control. The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $17 of economic impact.

ACP mounted

Gopher Got Your Avocado?

Learn about vertebrates in the orchard.

And all those other animals

that are attracted to avocado orchards

like ground,squirrels,

coyotes,

birds,

mountain lions,

bobcats and

others

The California Avocado Society,

California Avocado Commission

and University of California Cooperative

Extension have their bimonthly meeting:

June Seminar Topic
Vertebrate Management

(2 hours of DPR CE Approved)

 

Speakers: Niamh Quinn: Human-Wildlife Interactions Advisor

Dates/Times/Locations:

Tuesday, June 11, 2019, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

UC Cooperative Extension Office Auditorium, 2156 Sierra Way, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

 

Wednesday, June 12, 2019, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.

UC Cooperative Extension Office Auditorium, 669 County Square Dr., Ventura, CA 93003

 

Thursday, June 13, 2019, 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Fallbrook Public Utility District Board Rm., 990 East Mission Rd., Fallbrook, CA 92028

 

No registration is required.

 

ground squirrel 1

ground squirrel hole

Biologicals in Agriculture Conference

Conference and Trade Show on Biologicals

MARCH 5, 2019

Register by 28 February, 2019 at http://ucanr.edu/AIC2019
5.5 CCACEUs have been approved and 3.5 DPRCEUs have been requested

The purpose of the Ag Innovations Conference series is to introduce new technologies to the grower community by speakers from universities, research organizations, and the agriculture input industry.  The first event in Santa Maria (2014) covered a variety of topics while the second one in San Diego (2017) was on microbial control.  Considering the growing interest in biologicals and demand for sustainably produced food, the third conference is organized with carefully selected topics on biocontrol agents, biostimulants, and botanical and microbial pesticides and fungicides.  Early registration until February 28 is $50 per individual and $100 for onsite registration.  Registration includes lunch and refreshments.  Please contact Hiromi Peck at 805-781-5940 if you have any questions about registration or if you are interested in participating in the trade show.  Come join us for an informative day at the Veterans' Memorial Center (313 W Tunnell St, Santa Maria).

 

AIC 2019

Kaolin Control of Asian Citrus Psyllid

Psyllids as a pest group have very few specific predators that can be used in biocontrol.  Instead there can be some control by generalist predators, like minute pirate bugs, spiders, lady bug beetles and predatory thrips. Predation, though, does not completely remove the pest, in this case Asian Citrus Psyllid.  Leaving a few infected ACP to spread the HLB bacteria to trees, though, is a major problem because tree infection only requires a small amount of bacteria to eventually cause tree death.

Chemical control is being used in most situations for major control of the insect, and thereby the spread of any insects infected with the bacteria causing Huanglongbing. It turns out that pesticides that supplement more traditional modes of action can also be used. Kaolin is a white nonabrasive fine-grained mineral that when is sprayed on the plants forming a particle film. This compound is well known to suppress several species of insects in different crops due to host selection interference.

A recent study in Brazil investigated the influence of two kaolin formulations on the landing and feeding behavior of ACP.  Both kaolin formulations had a repellent effect and interfered with the feeding behavior of ACP on citrus. Kaolin reduced the number of psyllids and protected the citrus plants from insect feeding.  Frequent spray applications on the border of the farm could be an important strategy to reduce HLB spread.  Spraying to control ACP spread on orchard border trees is often critical because this is where infestations often start. Kaolin won't be a replacement for other pesticide sprays, but could be an added tool for controlling the pest and spread of the disease - another integrated management tool.

Spray application of different kaolin formulations on sweet orange plants disrupt the settling and probing behavior of Diaphorina citri

M. Miranda1, O. Zanardi1; H. Volpe1; R. Garcia1; N. Roda2, E. Prado3

1 Fundecitrus, Araraquara, Brazil, 2 Tessenderlo Kerley, Inc./NovaSource, Phoenix, USA, 3 Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras, Brazil

http://www.icc2016.com/images/icc2016/downloads/Abstract_Book_ICC_2016.pdf

Photo: Kaolin spray on Citrus Leaf

kaolin spray

UC IPM online courses offer continuing education units. Nov. 19 deadline coming.

—Cheryl Reynolds, UC Statewide IPM Program

 

Are you looking for continuing education units (CEUs) to complete your renewal application this year for the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR)? The UC Statewide IPM Program has several online courses available that can help you get those last few needed credits.

 

DPR license and certificate holders with last names beginning with M – Z renew this year. Renewal packets must be submitted to DPR before November 19^th to ensure that licenses are renewed by January 1, 2016. After that, applications may take up to 45 calendar days to process.

 

The online courses available from UC IPM that offer units for DPR license renewal include:

 

• Providing Integrated Pest Management Services in Schools and Child Care Settings (1 unit Laws and Regulations and 1 unit Other)
• Pesticide Resistance (2 units Other)
• Pesticide Application Equipment and Calibration (1.5 units Other)
• IPM – A Solution for Reducing Pesticides/Water Quality: Pesticide Properties (1 unit Other)
• The Impact of Pesticides on Water Quality/Mitigating Urban Pesticide Runoff (1 unit Other)
• Water Quality and Mitigation: Bifenthrin and Fipronil (1 unit Other)
• Herbicides and Water Quality (1 unit Other)

 

CEUs from the Structural Pest Control Board are also available for most of these courses.

 

For a list of other approved online or in-person courses, visit the DPR website. UC IPM plans to add additional online courses for 2016, including those available for Laws and Regulations units. For more information about the courses UC IPM offers as well as additional training opportunities and pest management information, see the UC IPM web site.

IPM computertraining

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