Management of Flower Thrips in Florida Strawberries withSteinernema feltiae(Rhabditida: Steinernematidae) and the Insecticide Sulfoxaflor

Abstract

Flower thrips (mainly Frankliniella spp.) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) are common in Florida strawberries, causing bronzed fruit and reduced yields. As control relies on just a few insecticides, there is a need to evaluate novel management options and insecticides. The entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema feltiae (Filipjev) (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae) has been shown to be effective on flower thrips larvae in other plants, and the new insecticide sulfoxaflor has been effective on thrips in other crops. In winter 2016, S. feltiae was evaluated at 2 foliar application rates (2.47 and 4.94 billion infective juveniles per ha) in combination with and without the insecticide spinetoram by counting thrips in strawberry flowers and assessing numbers of damaged fruits. A second experiment was conducted to compare sulfoxaflor, spinetoram, and S. feltiae applications based on flower thrips thresholds. High and low S. feltiae rates did not reduce or suppress thrips and did not reduce fruit damage. Sulfoxaflor reduced thrips by 60 to 70% compared to the reduction caused by spinetoram. Hot, dry conditions likely limited the survival and effectiveness of S. feltiae. Sulfoxaflor appears to be a promising insecticide for flower thrips, and may reduce reliance on spinetoram by strawberry producers.

Efficiency of Some Chemical and Bio-Insecticides Against Onion Thrips, Thrips Tabaci Lindeman (Thysanoptera: Thripidae)

“…From the current experiments, it appears that spinetoram and pyridalyl were the most effective compounds tested to control T. tabaci. These results are in harmony with the results of Khaliq et al (2014); Srivastava et al (2014); Marasigan et al (2016) and Renkema, et al (2018) who stated that spinetoram is an effective insecticide for control of different thrips species in a different variety of crops, providing rapidknockdown and sustained suppression of populations. According to Gholami and Sadeghi, (2016) each of spinosad, pyridalyl, and azadirachtin are new and effective insecticides for the control of western flower thrips in vegetable greenhouses.…”

Sustentabilidad Turismo y Educación

“…Estos nematodos presentan una asociación mutualista con bacterias del género Xenorhabdus y Photorhabdus, las cuales son transportadas en el intestino del nematodo y posteriormente liberadas en el hemocele del hospedero (Caicedo, 2003). El nematodo más comúnmente usado es S. feltiae, altamente virulenta contra larvas de segundo instar y prepupas de F. occidentalis, en condiciones de alta humedad en el suelo (Wardlow et al, 2001;Premachandra et al, 2003;Ebssa et al, 2004), aunque las condiciones secas y calientes limitan la sobrevivencia y la efectividad (Trdan et al, 2007;Renkema et al, 2018). La actividad de S. carpocapsae y H. bacteriophora se estudió con dos concentraciones de suspensión del nematodo, 200 y 400 IJ / cm 2 contra larvas de F. occidentalis, los resultados mostraron que H. bacteriophora logró una mayor tasa de mortalidad de larvas que S. carpocapsae (Belay et al, 2005).…”

Arthropod Pest Management in Strawberry

“…Even though only 1% of all the thrips species are considered to be serious pests, they cause immense damage to strawberry production worldwide [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. The major thrips species that are pests of strawberry include Frankliniella intonsa (Trybom), Thrips tabaci Lindeman, Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande, Frankliniella bispinosa Morgan, Thrips palmi Karny, Frankliniella schultzei Trybom, Thrips fuscipennis Haliday, T. imaginis Bagnall, T. atratus Haliday, and Thrips major Uzel [ 8 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood is an invasive pest in the southeastern USA, which became established in this region on strawberry crops in 2015 [ 5 ].…”