Publications by authors named "F J Wackers"
Unlabelled: Commercially reared bees provide economically important pollination services for a diversity of crops. Improving their health is important both to maximise their pollination services and to avoid possible pathogen spillover or spillback with wild pollinators. Diet quality may directly or indirectly affect diverse aspects of bumblebee health, including colony development, individual size and immune health, but the impact of this remains unclear.
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- Volatile aroma compounds significantly influence insect behavior, with different species responding uniquely to specific odors, although the exact molecules responsible are often unidentified.
- Beer, containing a diverse range of plant and microbial aromas, serves as an effective attractant for various insects, prompting research into its chemical composition and effects on pest species like fruit flies.
- The study revealed that certain combinations of aroma compounds enhanced the specificity of traps for different insect species and genders, highlighting the potential for using complex natural scents to improve pest control strategies.
Article Synopsis
- * The study tested the leaf-dwelling astigmatid mite Czenspinskia transversostriata as a food source for the predatory mite Amblyseius swirskii, showing it was just as good as other commonly used options.
- * Czenspinskia transversostriata not only supports high populations of A. swirskii but also feeds on powdery mildew on cucumber plants, potentially aiding in controlling this harmful fungus.
Background: The tomato russet mite, Aculops lycopersici, is a major worldwide pest infesting tomato crops for which only few control methods are available. At present, no commercialized beneficial organism has proven to be an effective biological control agent of the pest. As there is a strong need to develop alternatives to synthetic insecticides, we assessed the efficacy of an iolinid mite, Pronematus ubiquitus, as a preventive method against A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although most biological control programs use multiple biological agents to manage pest species, to date only a few programs have combined the use of agents from different guilds. Using sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), the entomopathogenic fungus Akanthomyces muscarius ARSEF 5128, the tobacco peach aphid Myzus persicae var.
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