The Association of Applied Biology Held a Meeting to Discuss "Bringing Biocontrol and IPM to Market"

Abstract

Keith Walters welcomed delegates and chaired the first session on "New Solutions", aimed to attract presentations on latest developments and novel Biocontrol/IPM approaches nearing completion or recently launched. Lauren Diepenbrock (University of Florida) started the session in which 'Rebuilding of IPM in growing citrus' was described. Before Huanglongbing (HLG) in the good old days, farmers may have used an oil spray and they used spider webs between trees. HLG is a bacterial disease Liberibacter asiaticus, first detected in 2005 that caused yellow shoots, twig dieback, stunted growth, and overall tree decline with misshapen fruits. Another pest from 1998 was the Asiatic citrus psyllid (ACP – Diaphorina citri) that is the vector of Candidactus liberator, causal agent of HLB. With many natural enemies including ladybirds, lacewings, syrphids, spiders, ants and other parasitoids, but from 1998–2016, in Citrus Health Management areas, farmers used insecticides, including neonicotinoids, but although this achieved solid returns, it was not going to last and there was a need to return to IPM, by incorporating non-insecticidal management options and reduce insecticide inputs. A new tool was to apply kaolin clay to reduce psyllid infestation and increase plant health. Another new idea was to protect individual trees with Exclusion bags to prevent ACP access to trees and improve scouting for pests. While successful with young trees, more research is needed to improve the return on investment.