Natural Enemies

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Natural Enemies Insecticides

• Celeste Welty
• February 2012

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How to use insecticides in presence of natural
enemies?

• Choose product
• Selective (by mode of action)
• or
• Very short residual activity

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Insecticides

• OMRI-listed, narrow spectrum
• viruses (Gemstar)
• bacteria (B.t. Dipel)
• Pheromones (CheckMate-TPW)
• OMRI-listed, broad spectrum
• soaps
• oils
• botanicals neem, pyrethrins
• fungi Beauveria

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Sources of info on non-target effects

• Scientific journals
• Review articles
• Individual studies
• Insect supply companies
• Koppert
• Biobest

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Effects of insecticides

• Direct
• Contact toxicity
• Residual toxicity
• Sub-lethal effects
• Physiology
• Behavior
• Indirect effects
• Food supply

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4 examples of research reports on specific systems
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Data from research trials parasitoid of squash
bug in Georgia
Walking on residues or contact by spray
Ingestion
But note no mention of effect on PEST
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Data from research trials avocado lace bug
lacewings in Calif.
PEST
ENEMY
WANT HIGH MORTALITY
WANT LOW MORTALITY
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Data from research trials avocado lace bug
lacewings in Calif.
PEST
ENEMY
good
bad
bad
WANT HIGH MORTALITY
WANT LOW MORTALITY
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Data from research trials whiteflies on
eggplant in Egypt
predators
pest
parasitoids
(Beauveria)
best
Helpful that 4 enemies evaluated, as well as
the pest Look for least harsh to enemies but
suppression of pest
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Koppert Biological Systems,Webpage on side
effectsfor 47 natural enemies 137 chemicals
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Koppert Biological Systems,Webpage on side
effectsfor 47 natural enemies 137 chemicals
Green good
Red bad
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Koppert lacewings spinosad
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Koppert lacewings spinosad
Note difference between life stages
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Next 3 slidesuse Koppert charts to compare
multiple enemies multiple chemicalslook for
general trendssome columns mostly greensome
columns mostly red
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Koppert 4 predator insects 7 OMRI products
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Koppert 4 parasitoid insects 7 OMRI products
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Koppert 3 predatory mites 7 OMRI products
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BiobestWebpage new mobile app on side
effectsfor 21 natural enemies 263 chemicals
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Biobest 4 predators 5 OMRI products
Note similar trends as on the Koppert charts
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Trends?

• Not harsh
• azadirachtin
• B.T.
• Harsh
• soap (potassium salts of fatty acids)
• Mixed results
• spinosad
• pyrethrins
• mineral oil

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Caution

• These do not include consideration of efficacy of
  chemical against the PEST.

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Hierarchy of harshness to natural enemies

• Spray conventional (non-OMRI) gtgt
• Spray OMRI broad spectrum (soaps, oils,
  botanicals, fungi) gtgt
• Spray OMRI narrow spectrum (viruses,
  pheromones, bacteria) gtgt
• No spray