Location: Southern Insect Management Research
Project Number: 6066-22000-090-016-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jan 1, 2024
End Date: Dec 31, 2024
Objective:
1. Identify and optimize host plant volatile based attractants that can improve the attraction of female Lygus lineolaris. Incorporating female specific attractants can greatly improve the performance of the reported red sticky card-based pheromone trap for Lygus monitoring and management.
2. Identifying repellants will help to repel L.lineolaris away from cotton crop and could be incorporated in push-pull strategies.
Approach:
Y-tube olfactometer assays will be performed using Lygus lineolaris adults to study their attraction and repellence towards reported host plant volatiles.Lygus Volatile compounds that show promise will be further tested in green house cage assays. Compounds will be added to rubber septa and used in greenhouse and field studies. Previously identified plant-based repellants also will be assayed and tested in similar bioassays. Attractants that show promise will be field tested in cotton with or without a combination of red sticky cards during summer to study their efficacy in trapping males and females. Compounds that show potential attraction will be tested in combination with pheromone blends to study their effectiveness in Lygus attraction. Experiments will be performed using L. lineolaris reared on liquid diet under laboratory conditions.
Experiments will be conducted to test the attract-and-kill approach in two field locations in Stoneville, MS (Southern Insect Management Research Unit farm, USDA) and Mound Bayou,MS (Alcorn State University Experiment Station) during summer 2024. Trap crop (mustard)-pheromone treatments will be tested under different insecticide spray treatments to test its effectiveness under field conditions. Trap crop will be planted in early May, 2-3 weeks before cotton is planted. Pheromone lures will be deployed in the field, and Lygus populations will be monitored weekly using red sticky cards in trap crop and cotton. Attractants identified from the first objective also will be used to improve the attraction of Lygus towards trap crops. Practical application of using repellants to push the Lygus away from cotton towards trap crop also will be explored. Different insecticide treatments and application regimes will be tested to identify the best combination of attract-and-kill strategy without compromising the cotton yield.
