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["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

STORY LEAD:
Environmentally-Friendly Controls for Peach Tree Pests
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Sharon Durham, (301) 504-1611, sharon.durham@ars.usda.gov
March 7, 2008
--View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at 
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
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Peach growers combat several insects that harm their crop, usually 
using chemical pesticides to do so.  Agricultural Research Service 
(ARS) scientists in the Southeastern Fruit and Tree Nut Research 
Laboratory in Byron, Ga., are seeking environmentally friendly 
alternatives.

ARS entomologists David Shapiro-Ilan and Ted Cottrell, along with 
colleagues at the University of Florida and the University of Georgia, 
are evaluating two tiny, soil-dwelling nematodes as possible biological 
controls.  They were used to thwart damage caused by the plum curculio 
weevil (Conotrachelus nenuphar), and two clear-winged moths, the 
peachtree borer (Synanthedon exitiosa), and the lesser peachtree borer 
(S. pictipes).

Shapiro-Ilan and Cottrell used the Steinernema riobrave nematode to 
defend against plum curculio larvae--producing a suppression rate of 78 
to 100 percent.

For the peachtree borer, the researchers used another beneficial 
nematode, Steinernema carpocapsae.  They found that a single field 
application of S. carpocapsae provided 88 percent suppression when 
applied to mature peachtree borer infestations in springtime.  In a 
recent field trial, three applications of S. carpocapsae during the 
peachtree borer's fall egg-laying season completely suppressed all 
damage.

The scientists knew from lab studies that another peach pest, the 
lesser peachtree borer, is also highly susceptible to S. carpocapsae.  
But the researchers also realized that controlling the lesser peachtree 
borer would be more difficult because they attack trees 
aboveground--where the nematodes dry out and are less effective.

To deal with this problem, the researchers applied S. carpocapsae 
nematodes to tree wounds and then covered the wounds with 
moisture-holding bandages.  In the first trial, 100 percent lesser 
peachtree borer mortality was attained in five days.

Read more about this research in the March 2008 issue of Agricultural 
Research magazine, available online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/mar08/peach0308.htm

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research 
agency.

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