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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Wooster, Ohio » Application Technology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #127629
Title: DEVELOPING QUARANTINE TREATMENTS FOR THE JAPANESE BEETLE

Author
item Klein, Michael
item MANNION, C - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
item MCLANE, W - APHIS
item OLIVER, J - TENN STATE UNIVERSITY
item Moyseenko, James
item COWAN, D - APHIS
item NEILSON, D - OHIO STATE UNIV
item HERMS, D - OHIO STATE UNIV
item Reding, Michael - Mike

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2002
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica, is a serious pest of nursery, turf and horticultural crops throughout the eastern United States. Both adults, which feed on leaves, flowers and fruits of more that 300 species of plants and the larvae, or "white grubs", which feed on the roots of grasses and plants, can cause damage. Federal quarantines of nursery stock were based on hard insecticides such as lead arsenate, DDT, dieldrin and chlordane and were in place from the early 1920s through the 1970s. With the loss of chlordane and the establishment of State quarantines, there was a need for additional research. Work in the 1970s and 1980s resulted in the development of both International and Domestic Japanese Beetle Harmonization Plans. Treatments available under these plans are severely limited and based mostly on the use of chlorpyrifos dips. A consortium of agencies, USDA/ARS, USDA/APHIS/PPQ, Tennessee State University and The Ohio State University/OARDC worked to try and expand the materials available for use in quarantine programs. Three areas were explored: (1) dip treatments; (2) management of early instars; and (3) late instar management. We demonstrated that reduced concentrations of chlorpyrifos gave 100% control of Japanese beetle larvae in root balls from 12 in to 32 in diameter. Although spring and summer surface treatments with new chemistry insecticides (imidacloprid and halofenozide) resulted in high (85-100%) mortality of grubs in field nursery plots, they could not reliably provide the extremely high control needed in quarantine situations. Likewise, treatments of late instar larvae did not give control which would be acceptable for the shipment of nursery stock to uninfested areas.