Location: Invasive Plant Research Laboratory
Project Number: 6032-22000-013-137-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 1, 2024
End Date: Apr 30, 2025
Objective:
he primary purpose of this project is to reduce populations of the aggressive invasive weed, Brazilian peppertree by the deployment of an approved biological control agent. This environmentally safe, cost-effective, and sustainable means of weed control will be accomplished with the mass production, distribution, and evaluation of the approved thrips, Pseudophilothrips ichini. Established methods will be implemented and improved as needed to mass produce, release, detect, evaluate the safety and impact of the thrips on the target weed.
Approach:
After 4 years of releases across the state, thrips have become established at numerous release sites and survey data and research suggests the goals and objectives described herein can be achieved. Preliminary results suggest, but additional field data needs to confirm, that release strategies with large numbers of individuals (over 1000 individuals), several repeated releases, releases in diverse habitats, and manipulation of plant phenologies will assist in agent establishment. Natural enemies of the thrips may include generalist predators though parasitoid natural enemies have not been found attacking the thrips P. ichini after releases. Further work is needed to identify other potential natural enemies and the impacts they may have.
