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Funded Project

Funding Program: Integrated Pest Management Competitive Grants Program

Project Title: Predicting variation of biological insect control in alfalfa hay and seed crops

Project Director (PD): Randa Jabbour [1]

Lead State: WY Lead Organization: University of Wyoming

Undesignated Funding: $29,919

Start Date: Mar-02-2015 End Date: Feb-29-2016

Pests Involved: Hypera postica and Lygus spp.

Site/Commodity: alfalfa

Area of Emphasis: biological control

Summary: Alfalfa is an important crop in the Western United States. Insect pests are a costly challenge to producing quality alfalfa hay and seed crops, with alfalfa weevil and Lygus, respectively, as the most problematic pests in these distinct systems. Seed producers have the additional challenge of balancing chemical management with pollinator conservation, both of which are crucial for production of a high-yielding seed crop. Growers of both hay and seed crops primarily rely on chemical control of insect pests. Use of chemical control is not economically or environmentally sustainable, and there are often challenges to producers to accomplish timely implementation. Conservation biological control of insect pests could reduce input costs and accomplish environmental stewardship and pollinator conservation. Parasitoids were released for the control of alfalfa weevil in the intermountain west throughout the 1900s. Our 2014 preliminary survey found that these parasitoids continue to persist in southeastern Wyoming in varying densities. The aim of this project will be to quantify sources of variation in abundance of insect pests, natural enemies, and parasitism rates in alfalfa hay and seed fields throughout Wyoming. We will evaluate the partitioning of variability due to local and landscape factors, and time of season. We will also collect baseline evaluation data from growers regarding their use of chemical control as well as their knowledge and awareness of biological control agents in alfalfa. This work will provide a strong foundation for research to augment conservation biological control in field crops of the West. Objectives: 1) Identify the key natural enemy groups in alfalfa hay and seed cropping fields in Wyoming. 2) Evaluate whether local factors, landscape factors, and time of season predict pest abundance, natural enemy abundance, and parasitism rates. 3) Quantify ambient floral resources within and adjacent to alfalfa production fields throughout the season.

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