2023 Quarter 3 Newsletter

Walsh Receives Highest ESA Honor, Conducts Summer Outreach

Washington State IPM Coordinator and Extension Entomologist Doug Walsh has been elected as a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America. The ESA is the premiere international association in the science of entomology and, to quote its website, “Being selected as a Fellow is the greatest honor the society can bestow on an individual.” Fellows of ESA are individuals who have made outstanding contributions to entomology and whose career accomplishments serve to inspire all entomologists. Congratulations, Doug, on this well-deserved honor!

This summer included presentations on integrated management of spider mites and other pests at various Pacific Northwest hop grower meetings, pest monitoring demonstrations and discussion at the WSU Viticulture Field Day, and IPM demonstration projects at the Washington Mint Growers Association and Touchet-Gardena Alfalfa Seed Growers respective field days.

Walsh also continued his ongoing work with WERA-1017: Coordination of Integrated Pest Management Research and Extension/Educational Programs for the Western States and Pacific Basin Territories. This multistate research coordinating committee and information exchange group provides a platform for information sharing among the states and territories of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and Guam. This year’s meeting took place in September in Homer, Alaska.

Codling Moth Presentation and Tree Fruit Resources

Tree Fruit IPM Extension Specialist Betsy Beers took part in the Okanogan Horticultural Society Summer Field Day on August 3 in Tonasket. Topics included:

• Sugar Bee (apple) Growth and Management
  • Grafted trees
  • Summer pruning
• Apple Maggot Update
  • Potential quarantine situation
• Codling Moth Pheromone Trapping
• Dieback and Canker Diseases of Cherries
• Bird and Rodent Control

Beers presented on codling moth pheromone trapping, including factors influencing trap catch and new product efficacy. Beers is an internationally recognized expert in novel codling moth control tactics (pdf), including use of sterile insect release (SIR) (pdf), pheromone trapping and mating disruption, and exclusion netting and other cultural controls. As part of the Codling Moth Task Force, Beers co-organized and moderated the Codling Moth Summit in 2022. Her presentation,  Insights from the Codling Moth Survey: Where Are We?, is available on the WSU CAHNRS YouTube channel. 

The Beers Laboratory website has information on brown marmorated stink bug and spotted wing drosophila as well as codling moth and other pests of apples, pears, and stone fruit. Additional IPM resources for tree fruit growers can be found on the WSU Tree Fruit and WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center websites, including the comprehensive Orchard Pest Management: A Resource Book for the Pacific Northwest.

Volunteer Wheat Control and Other Timely Topics

Small Grains Extension Specialist Drew Lyon and colleagues Tim Murray and Dale Whaley posted an article on Volunteer Wheat Control as a Timely Topic on the WSU Wheat & Small Grains website in late August. The article explained how volunteer wheat acts as a “green bridge,” allowing certain insects and diseases to survive from one season’s wheat crop to the next. Examples include Wheat streak mosaic virus, which is carried from volunteer to newly planted wheat by the wheat curl mite; barley yellow dwarf, transmitted by aphids; stripe rust, which can survive in the volunteer wheat until the new crop emerges; and Hessian flies, which survive on wheat stubble and can infest volunteer wheat and survive into the next growing season.

Other IPM-related Timely Topic articles posted this quarter included:

• Grasshoppers and the Jump to Canola by Whaley
• Benefits to Pea Weevil Management by Whaley
• WSU Herbicide Resistance Screening Program by Marija Savic and Ian Burke

The 2023 Field Day Abstracts (pdf) are now available. This 52-page document is packed with highlights of research progress by WSU, U of I, and OSU. Pages 10-18 focus specifically on pathology, weeds, and insects. Current and past abstracts can be found on the WSU Crop and Soil Sciences website.

Educating Agencies About Biodegradable Plastic Mulch

Vegetable Horticulture Specialist Carol Miles organized the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) tour at the Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center in Mount Vernon on August 4. The topic, Improving End-of-Life Management of Plastic Mulch, was delivered to an audience comprised of APEC-member secretaries or undersecretaries of agriculture, ministry personnel from more than a dozen countries, and staff from USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service.

In response to the National Organic Program (NOP) September 9 Memorandum to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) (pdf) addressing Biodegradable Biobased Mulch Film (BBMF), Miles’ team submitted a comment to the NOSB (pdf)containing recommendations for revision to the NOP annotation for soil-biodegradable plastic film mulch. Based on the latest field studies, the team’s 4-page comment documents their recommendations for the NOP to consider, including aligning its biobased content criteria to that of USDA’s BioPreferred Program. Also addressed is the issue of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs), which are not ingredients and therefore not a concern in biodegradable mulches.

Additional information about use of biodegradable plastic films in agriculture is available at the WSU Plastic Mulches website. Fact sheets, journal publications, popular press articles, podcasts, and videos about BDMs can be found on the Publications & Media page of the WSU Small Fruit Horticulture Research & Extension Program website.

Varroa and Foulbrood Outreach for Honey Bee Health

Honey Bee Health Specialist Brandon Hopkins and his team continued their outreach on controlling varroa mites this quarter. Varroa mites are a major contributor to honey bee health decline. Hopkins and his team have been testing a novel miticide that involved the stabilization of oxalic acid in a long-lasting treatment strip. The data from their research is being used in an EPA Section 3 application. If successfully registered, this product can become part of Washington beekeepers’ IPM toolkit to control varroa mites.

The Hopkins team also attended and presented at the Washington State Beekeepers Association’s annual Pacific Northwest Beekeeping Conference in Olympia.  Students presented on their research and demonstrated ongoing work with Metarhizium fungus for varroa control.

American foulbrood and European foulbrood are the two major bacterial diseases impacting honey bee health. Antibiotics can successfully treat both diseases, but finding veterinarians qualified and willing to issue a veterinarian feed directive (VFD) can be difficult.  Encouraging and educating veterinarians about working in a beekeeping space is an ongoing component of the Hopkins team’s outreach and extension program, which included a presentation at the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association conference in September.