Browsing by Author "Oliver, Jason B."

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    Biology, Ecology, and Management of Nonnative Ambrosia Beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) in Ornamental Plant Nurseries
    Ranger, Christopher M.; Reding, Michael E.; Schultz, Peter B.; Oliver, Jason B.; Frank, Steven D.; Addesso, Karla M.; Chong, Juang Hong; Sampson, Blair J.; Werle, Christopher T.; Gill, Stanton; Krause, Charles (Entomological Society of America, 2016-01)
    Xylosandrus germanus (Blandford) and Xylosandrus crassiusculus (Motschulsky) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) are two of the most damaging nonnative ambrosia beetle pests in ornamental plant nurseries. Adult females tunnel into the stems and branches of host plants to create galleries with brood chambers. Hosts are infected with symbiotic Ambrosiella spp. fungi that serve as food for the larvae and adults. Plants can also become infected with secondary opportunistic pathogens, including Fusarium spp. Both X. germanus and X. crassiusculus have broad host ranges, and infestations can result in "toothpicks" of extruded chewed wood and sap flow associated with gallery entrances, canopy dieback, stem and trunk cankers, and plant death. Beetles efficiently locate and preferentially attack living, weakened plants, especially those physiologically stressed by flooding, inadequate drainage, frost injury, or winter injury and low temperature. Maintaining plant health is the foundation of a management plan. Vulnerable hosts can be partially protected with preventive pyrethroid applications in the spring before peak flight and attack, which are monitored using ethanol-based trapping tactics.
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    Integrating repellent and attractant semiochemicals into a push-pull strategy for ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)
    Werle, Christopher T.; Ranger, Christopher M.; Schultz, Peter B.; Reding, Michael E.; Addesso, Karla M.; Oliver, Jason B.; Sampson, Blair J. (2019-05)
    Non-native ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), especially Xylosandrus compactus (Eichhoff), Xylosandrus crassiusculus (Motschulsky) and Xylosandrus germanus (Blandford), are destructive wood-boring pests of trees in ornamental nurseries and tree fruit orchards. Previous studies have demonstrated the adults are repelled by verbenone and strongly attracted to ethanol. We tested a "push-pull" semiochemical strategy in Ohio, Virginia and Mississippi using verbenone emitters to "push" beetles away from vulnerable trees and ethanol lures to "pull" them into annihilative traps. Container-grown trees were flood-stressed to induce ambrosia beetle attacks and then deployed in the presence or absence of verbenone emitters and a perimeter of ethanol-baited interception traps to achieve the following treatment combinations: (a) untreated control, (b) verbenone only, (c) ethanol only, and (d) verbenone plus ethanol. Verbenone and ethanol did not interact to reduce attacks on the flooded trees, nor did verbenone alone reduce attacks. The ethanol-baited traps intercepted enough beetles to reduce attacks on trees deployed in Virginia and Mississippi in 2016, but not in 2017, or in Ohio in 2016. Xylosandrus germanus, X. crassiusculus and both Hypothenemus dissimilis Zimmermann and X. crassiusculus were among the predominant species collected in ethanol-baited traps deployed in Ohio, Virginia and Mississippi, respectively. Xylosandrus germanus and X. crassiusculus were also the predominant species dissected from trees deployed in Ohio and Virginia, respectively. While the ethanol-baited traps showed promise for helping to protect trees by intercepting ambrosia beetles, the repellent "push" component (i.e., verbenone) and attractant "pull" component (i.e., ethanol) will need to be further optimized in order to implement a "push-pull" semiochemical strategy.
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    Long-Lasting Insecticide Netting for Protecting Tree Stems from Attack by Ambrosia Beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae)
    Ranger, Christopher M.; Werle, Christopher T.; Schultz, Peter B.; Addesso, Karla M.; Oliver, Jason B.; Reding, Michael E. (MDPI, 2019-12-20)
    Ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) are destructive wood-boring insects of horticultural trees. We evaluated long-lasting insecticide netting for protecting stems against ambrosia beetles. Container-grown eastern redbud, Cercis canadensis, trees were flood-stressed to induce ambrosia beetle attacks, and deltamethrin-treated netting was wrapped from the base of the stem vertically to the branch junction. Trees were deployed under field conditions in Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, and Mississippi with the following treatments: (1) flooded tree; (2) flooded tree with untreated netting; (3) flooded tree with treated ‘standard mesh’ netting of 24 holes/cm2; (4) flooded tree with treated ‘fine mesh’ netting of 28 holes/cm2; and/or (5) non-flooded tree. Treated netting reduced attacks compared to untreated netting and/or unprotected trees in Mississippi in 2017, Ohio and Tennessee in 2018, and Virginia in 2017–2018. Inconsistent effects occurred in Mississippi in 2018. Fewer Anisandrus maiche, Xylosandrus germanus, and Xyleborinus saxesenii were dissected from trees deployed in Ohio protected with treated netting compared to untreated netting; trees deployed in other locations were not dissected. These results indicate long-lasting insecticide netting can provide some protection of trees from ambrosia beetle attacks.
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    Trap Tree and Interception Trap Techniques for Management of Ambrosia Beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) in Nursery Production
    Addesso, Karla M.; Oliver, Jason B.; Youssef, Nadeer; O'Neal, Paul A.; Ranger, Christopher M.; Reding, Michael E.; Schultz, Peter B.; Werle, Christopher T. (2019-04)
    The majority of wood-boring ambrosia beetles are strongly attracted to ethanol, a behavior which could be exploited for management within ornamental nurseries. A series of experiments was conducted to determine if ethanol-based interception techniques could reduce ambrosia beetle pest pressure. In two experiments, trap trees injected with a high dose of ethanol were positioned either adjacent or 1015 m from trees injected with a low dose of ethanol (simulating a mildly stressed tree) to determine if the high-dose trap trees could draw beetle attacks away from immediately adjacent stressed nursery trees. The high-ethanol-dose trees sustained considerably higher attacks than the low-dose trees; however, distance between the low- and high-dose trees did not significantly alter attack rates on the low-dose trees. In a third experiment, 60-m length trap lines with varying densities of ethanol-baited traps were deployed along a forest edge to determine if immigrating beetles could be intercepted before reaching sentinel traps or artificially stressed sentinel trees located 10 m further in-field. Intercept trap densities of 2 or 4 traps per trap line were associated with fewer attacks on sentinel trees compared to no traps, but 7 or 13 traps had no impact. None of the tested intercept trap densities resulted in significantly fewer beetles reaching the sentinel traps. The evaluated ethanol-based interception techniques showed limited promise for reducing ambrosia beetle pressure on nursery trees. An interception effect might be enhanced by applying a repellent compound to nursery trees in a pushpull strategy.