Improving pest control: mass rearing and field performance – an introduction

Beukeboom, Leo W.

doi:10.1111/eea.12543

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Biological control has become an important pest management strategy to reduce the use of insecticides (van Lenteren et al ., 2018), and the performance of biological control agents (BCAs) released in augmentative pest control programs is of major importance for the success of integrated pest management (Beukeboom, 2017). However, BCAs may be raised under suboptimal laboratory conditions and therefore will be in poor body condition (Jakob et al ., 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival and predation rate of wild-caught and commercially produced Orius majusculus (Reuter) (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae)

Jensen

Toft

Sørensen

et al. 2021

Bull. Entomol. Res.

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The quality of biological control agents used in augmentative releases may be affected by rearing conditions due to inbreeding or laboratory adaptation, or to phenotypic effects of the rearing environment. We hypothesized that individuals from a wild population would be in better body condition and kill more prey than individuals from a commercially produced population. We caught wild Orius majusculus (Reuter) in a maize field and compared their initial body mass, survival, and prey reduction capacity to commercially produced O. majusculus. Predation capacity and survival were compared in short-term Petri dish tests with Frankliniella tenuicornis (Uzel) thrips, Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller) moth eggs, or Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) aphids as prey, and in longer-term outdoor mesocosms containing live seedling wheat grass with thrips or aphids as prey. Wild-caught O. majusculus were typically heavier and overall had higher survival during tests than commercially produced O. majusculus. Females were heavier than males and typically killed more prey. However, we found no difference between wild-caught and commercially produced individuals on prey reduction, neither in Petri dishes nor in mesocosms. Our study suggests that commercially produced O. majusculus have lower body condition than wild O. majusculus due to their lower body mass and survival, but that this does not have any negative effect on the number of pest prey killed over the timelines and conditions of our tests. Commercially produced O. majusculus thus did not have a lower impact on pest prey numbers than wild-caught individuals and therefore had similar biological control value under our study conditions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%