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Funded Project |
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Funding Program:
Regional IPM Competitive Grants - Northeastern |
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Project Title:
Developing an IPM Program for Western Bean Cutworm, a New Corn and Dry Bean Pest in the Northeast Region |
Project Director (PD):
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Lead State: Lead Organization: Penn State University |
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Cooperating State(s):
New York, Vermont |
| Undesignated Funding: $150,896 |
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Start Date: Jun-01-2012 End Date: May-31-2014 |
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No-Cost Extension Date: May-31-2015 |
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Summary:
This is a research project. Western bean cutworm (WBC; Striacosta albicosta) has invaded the Northeast Region in recent years. This pest species new to the Northeast attacks corn (Zea mays; including field and sweet corn) and both dry beans and snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), feeding on developing corn kernels or beans. Infestations of WBC larvae can reduce yield 30-40% and cause crop quality to be down graded or rejected by processors. Corn and bean production is vital to the diversified agricultural economy of the Northeast, including dairies and vegetable farms, and accounts for more than 7 million acres of cropland in the region. Our collaborative research proposal seeks to understand the spread of this pest species and the threat it poses, across a significant portion of the Northeast Region, where it has the potential to cause significant damage and prompt widespread increases in insecticide use, and begins the work of developing an IPM plan to manage WBC. Our objectives include: 1) Develop a regional western bean cutworm monitoring network; 2) Integrate existing Great Lakes regional trap capture data into the PestWatch system to understand the spread of WBC and develop a smartphone/web app to report larval infestations into the PestWatch system; 3) Evaluate the relevance for the Northeast of the Midwestern degree day model for predicting various activity periods; 4) Evaluate and improve the pheromone blend used to monitor WBC. These objectives combine practical efforts to understand the distribution of the WBC in the Northeast with promising applied efforts to manage this invasive pest species.
Objectives:
Anticipated impacts:
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Interim Report: Dec-22-2013 |
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Impacts We tracked the expansion of western bean cutworm in 2012 and 2013 in NY, PA, and VT. These data were entered into the PestWatch system (www.pestwatch.psu.edu) where they are available to the public. From our data, we interpreted the risk to crop fields from western bean cutworm and shared this information with growers via state-based extension materials and regional agronomic newsletters. We also related our moth captures to soil type to determine if we can have a predictive understanding of factors that contribute to local western bean cutworm populations. In addition to work the data from the most recent growing season, we also accumulated and entered into the PestWatch database trap captures from 2009 through 2013 for IN, MI, and OH, and have begun this work with data from Ontario. We have begun relating these data to degree-day accumulations for each locality to determine when moths were flying relative to cumulative heat units Extension educators and other agricultural professionals have performed the trapping, learning about pest biology, pest monitoring, and integrated pest management Growers have an unbiased assessment of the risk from western bean cutworm. |
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Outcomes Extension presentations in PA, NY, and VT. Extension newsletters in the three states as well. We will run the full degree-day model, helping predict key activity periods for western bean cutworm moths. Our team presented a poster on the progress of our project at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America in Austin, Texas in November. This allowed us to share our findings with entomologists from around the country. Risk maps relating populations of western bean cutworm moths to soil type. Database of captures of western bean cutworm moths in pheromone traps from the Great Lakes Region from 2009 through 2013. |
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Final Report: |
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Impacts The primary impact of our project has been education and awareness of this pest species and its risk to farmers of New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. Had we not deployed a monitoring network, we would have no idea where the populations of western bean cutworm were most significant and had potential to cause economic damage. Because of our trapping network, we were able to pinpoint areas of high populations, particularly in New York, and warn farmers in those areas to scout for the pest. If they found significant populations, then they would be able to implement appropriate management tactics. In Pennsylvania and Vermont, our trapping efforts gave us confidence to tell growers that this pest species has yet to develop into an economic concern, and the few caterpillars we have found during our scouting efforts, reinforces this conclusion. If we had simply assumed that the pest was widespread, as it was in Michigan and Ontario, farmers would have wasted much scouting effort and possibly money spent on prophylactic spray treatments to control a pest that was not present, which helps contribute to better environmental health. " Documented status and distribution of this pest in New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont. " Documented annual western bean cutworm population dynamics and identified areas of higher relative/increased risk for yield and quality impacts. " Strengthened our monitoring network and enhanced timely communication within state and among state and regional collaborators regarding distribution, status and potential impacts of this emerging pest to field and sweet corn and dry bean producers. " Identified areas within New York where WBC populations have increased, raising concerns for future economic impacts. Producer interactions and field efforts have identified areas of need for appropriate research and opportunities for continued extension outreach. " Improved local baseline information has enhanced our extension outreach efforts and producer/industry awareness towards western bean cutworm identification, monitoring and management. " The improved PestWatch website and associated database will form the basis of further products, including peer-reviewed research and extension publications, which we are working toward. From a big picture, IPM-perspective, our work emphasizes the importance of pest monitoring. Many pest species can be monitored using various technologies, and knowing the distribution of pest species is invaluable when it comes to understanding local populations and potentially managing them. Our effort with western bean cutworm clearly shows that corn and dry beans grown in proximity to Lakes Erie and Ontario are at much greater risk to damage by caterpillars than crops in other parts of these three states. |
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Outcomes Over the duration of our project the monitoring network we deployed revealed that moth populations behaved quite differently in the three states (Table 1). In Vermont, which we hypothesized to be about the leading edge of the expanding populations, populations remained low over the three years of the project with traps capturing 82, 22, and 100 moths in 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively (Table 1). In Pennsylvania, the populations grew over time, but stayed relatively modest, particularly compared to the number of moths captured in New York or in other Great Lakes States. We captured around 360 moths in both 2010 and 2011. Then in 2012 this total increased to 1288 moths, followed by 418 moths in 2013 and 1518 in 2014 (Table 1). In contrast, the populations of moths in New York grew substantial larger, increasing steadily from 739 in 2010 to 11,406 in 2014; this latter value is nearly three times the total number of moth capture in Pennsylvania during the same five year period (Table 1). Our monitoring network illustrated that western bean cutworm spread across the three states since they were first discovered in Pennsylvania and New York 2009. Now moth populations are highest along the coast of Lakes Erie and Ontario. In Pennsylvania, the largest populations of moths have been captured in the northwestern most county, Erie County, with our next highest populations occurring in our northern tier of counties, just south of New York. In New York, the highest populations are close to the lakes, particularly off the eastern end of both lakes and north of Rt. 90 near Lake Ontario. This distribution close to Lake Erie and Lake Ontario suggests that some factor associated with the lakes is fostering these larger populations. We hypothesized that this factor may be related to soil type because western bean cutworm overwinters in the soil and its winter mortality is associated with the depth of the overwintering burrows created by the larvae. By collaborating with a soil scientist proficient with GIS (geographic information systems), we were able to compared trap locations with soil types. And while trap location may not be associated with overwintering location, 70% of moths were captured on coarser textured soils (lighter) while 33.4% were in fine textured soils (heavier). Notably, 39% of captures occurred on fine silty soils (intermediate soil class), which dominate the region along the two lakes. While this analysis is imperfect because we do not know where moths overwintered, if we assume moths came from reasonably nearby locations, it suggests that soil type may help explain why the largest populations of western bean cutworm moths are close to the Great Lakes, and our working hypothesis is that soil type may be facilitating winter survival. One detail to keep in mind about our project is that we are dealing with male moths, the populations of which do not necessarily correlate to those of female moths, which are of course the source of eggs. This potential disconnect between male and female moths may help explain why to our knowledge no western bean cutworm caterpillars have been found in Vermont and very few have been found in Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania we confirmed the identity of one moth in Centre County, PA, close to State College, and found one field in Potter County (just south of New York) that appeared to have some ears infested with young western bean cutworm caterpillars, though the populations were too small to be considered economically significant. In contrast, populations of caterpillars in New York have been quite a bit larger, perhaps not surprising given the strong moth populations that we detected along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. In fact, although economic damage has not yet been reported, populations in far northern New York, south and east of Lake Ontario, have been large enough to cause concern. As a result, corn farmers in portions of the state with large numbers of moths have been adopting Bt corn hybrids with transgenic resistance against western bean cutworm caterpillar, namely the Cry1F trait such as found in Herculex and SmartStax hybrids. In addition to tracking populations of western bean cutworm in Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont, our goal was to improve the PestWatch database and online tools to facilitate entry of future collections of moths and better evaluate the population data that have already been collected. To this end, we produced a mobile application for smartphones with which cooperators can directly enter their data right into the PestWatch database. We also revamped PestWatch itself including the front-end user interface and the database to facilitate more user-controlled content manipulation and analyses; and hope to have these features available to the public in the coming months. Among the new features is a queryable database which can be used to make maps showing distribution of moths and a growing-degree-day tool, which allows a user to understand the phenology of western bean cutworm based on accumulated heat units at a particular trapping location. We also accumulated data from other Great Lakes states that have experienced invading populations of western bean cutworm over the past seven or so years. Collaborating with extension entomologists in those states and the province of Ontario, we incorporated their moth captures into PestWatch. Now we can use these accumulated data from each state (WI, IN, OH, MI) to assess the validity of Midwestern based phenology models to predict peak moth flight and determine whether western bean cutworm is behaving differently now that it is in the eastern US. We have incorporated our project on western bean cutworm into many extension presentations. For Pennsylvania, we have discussed our project with approximately 2249 agricultural professionals at 31 meetings. In New York, since July 2010, we have discussed western bean cutworm with approximately 3618 agricultural professionals at 29 meetings. Western bean cutworm trap monitoring updates has been the topic of 59 articles in our Weekly Field Crop Pest Report from 2010 2015 (http://blogs.cornell.edu/ipmwpr/). As a team, we also present preliminary information on the project at the 2013 Entomology Society of America National Meetings in Austin TX. |
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