Entomology
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Item EVALUATING SOLITARY BEE NESTING PREFERENCE – DOES THE GROUND COVER MATTER?(2023) Barranco, Lindsay; vanEngelsdorp, Dennis; Entomology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Solitary bees make up the majority of the world’s 20,000 total species of bees. Over 70% of solitary bees nest underground. Bee fitness is likely determined, in part, by the proximity to appropriate nesting sites. Identifying ground cover management that optimally supports bee nesting could help inform and improve conservation efforts. To date, little is known about the impact ground cover has on ground nesting bees nesting success. To start to fill this gap in knowledge, this study monitored 4 plots, located in Maryland, with different ground cover treatments from early May to mid-July in 2020. Emergence traps were utilized to capture nesting solitary bees within the 4 treatments – solarized bare ground, wildflowers, un-mown grass, and mown grass. When compared to cut grass and uncut grass, we found that emergence traps were 5 to 7 times more likely to catch solitary bees when placed over bare soil plots. This suggests that more bees nest in ground that starts bare or contains significant bare patches. Although the covid pandemic limited the number of sites monitored and reduced the time frame of the study, the preliminary research results provide guidance to homeowners and land managers that wish to manage landscapes in ways that support solitary bee nesting.Item Comparative Efficacy of Common Active Ingredients in Organic Insecticides Against Difficult to Control Insect Pests(MDPI, 2020-09-08) Dively, Galen P.; Patton, Terrence; Barranco, Lindsay; Kulhanek, KellyThere exists a lack of control efficacy information to enable decision-making about which organic insecticide product works best for a given insect pest. Here, we summarize results of 153 field trials on the control efficacy of common active ingredients in organic insecticides against 12 groups of the most difficult to control insect pests. These trials evaluated primarily the organic products Entrust (spinosad), Azera (pyrethrin and azadirachtin), PyGanic (pyrethrin) and Neemix (azadirachtin), which reduced pest infestations by an overall 73.9%, 61.7%, 48.6% and 46.1% respectively, averaged across all trials. Entrust was the most effective control option for many insect pests, particularly providing >75% control of flea beetles, Colorado potato beetle, cabbageworms and alfalfa weevil, but was relatively ineffective against true bugs and aphids. Azera provided >75% control of green peach aphid, flea beetles, Japanese beetle, Mexican bean beetle, potato leafhopper and cabbageworms. PyGanic was less effective than Entrust and Azera but still provided >75% control of green peach aphid, flea beetles and potato leafhopper. The growth inhibition effects of azadirachtin in Neemix were particularly effective against larvae of Mexican bean beetle and Colorado potato beetle but was generally less effective in trials with insect infestations consisting mainly of adult stages. Those insect pests that were particularly difficult to control included thrips, stinkbugs, cucumber beetles and fruitworms. Several caveats pertaining to the application of the results are discussed.