Plant versus pollinator protection: balancing pest management against floral contamination for insecticide use in Midwestern US cucurbits.

Controlling crop pests while conserving pollinators is challenging, particularly when prophylactically applying broad-spectrum, systemic insecticides such as neonicotinoids. Systemic insecticides are often used in conventional agriculture in commercial settings, but the conditions that optimally balance pest management and pollination are poorly understood. We investigated how insecticide application strategies control pests and expose pollinators to insecticides with an observational study of cucurbit crops in the Midwestern United States.

Constitutive Level of Specialized Secondary Metabolites Affects Plant Phytohormone Response to Above- and Belowground Herbivores.

Plants defend themselves chemically against herbivory through secondary metabolites and phytohormones. Few studies have investigated how constitutive variation in secondary metabolites contributes to systemic herbivory response. We hypothesized that plants with lower constitutive defenses would induce a stronger phytohormone response to spatially separated herbivory than plants with high constitutive defense.

Managing insect and plant pathogen pests with organic and conventional pesticides in onions.

Onion thrips (Thrips tabaci Lindeman, Thysanoptera: Thripidae) is a significant insect pest of onions (Allium cepa L., Asparagales: Amaryllidaceae). In addition to feeding on onion foliage, they may spread plant pathogens.

Onion Thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) Host Plant Preference and Performance are Mediated by a Facultative Plant Pathogen of Onion.

Insect vector and phytopathogen interactions are mediated by host plants. Insects interact with pathogens directly or indirectly and they may prefer host plants based on infection status. Performance on infected hosts varies depending on the type of pathogen involved.

Beneficial and Pest Arthropod Responses to Tillage and Cover Crop Residues in Organic Cucurbits.

Reduced tillage methods such as strip tillage are often combined with cover crop mixtures to provide agronomic benefits which can support crop and soil health. However, reduced tillage and cover crop species/arrangements effects on arthropods is less understood and results of previous studies have varied. In this study, we examined how agriculturally relevant pest and beneficial arthropod species were impacted by tillage and cover crop methods in USDA-certified organic Cucurbita (L.