The sweetpotato whitefly (left) and Lygus bugs are major pest of cotton, vegetables and other crops in the southwestern USA. Researchers in Maricopa are developing ecologically based strategies to manage these important pests.
The green lacewing (left) and the big-eyed bug prey on whiteflies and other pest insects. Research in Maricopa is focused on strategies for conserving these insects in cropping system so they can provide critical biological control services.
The pink bollworm is a major pest of cotton globally and was a key pest of cotton in the western USA starting in the 1960s. In 2018 the USDA officially declared the eradication of this pest from the continental USA. Eradication was a bi-national cooperative effort between cotton growers in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and northern Mexico, USDA-ARS, USDA-APHIS, and state universities and agencies.
Aspergillus flavus and related fungi contaminate corn (left), cotton, peanuts, tree nuts and other crops grown in warm areas with toxic, carcinogenic fungal metabolites called aflatoxins. Aflatoxins in crops can be reduced by applying non-aflatoxin producing fungi to fields in the form of a grain substrate that is coated with spores of the biocontrol strain (right).
