One of the possible adverse effects of transgenic insecticidal crops is the unintended decline in the abundance of nontarget arthropods. Field trials designed to evaluate potential nontarget effects can be more complex than expected because decisions to conduct field trials and the selection of taxa to include are not always guided by the results of laboratory tests. Also, recent studies emphas...

Title of Thesis: EVALUATING THE IMPACTS OF CROTOLARIA JUNCEA, SUNN HEMP, ON ARTHROPOD POPULATIONS AND PLANT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN A ZUCCHINI INTER-CROPPED AGROECOSYSTEM Jermaine L. Hinds, Master of Science, 2012 Thesis directed By: Professor Cerruti Hooks Department of Entomology Recently, studies have shown that crop diversification strategies can be effective and sustainable means of supp...

BACKGROUND Arthropod biological control agents (BCAs) are commonly released for greenhouse vegetable insect pest management. Nevertheless, chemicals remain a necessary control tactic for certain insect pests and diseases and they can have negative impacts on BCAs. The compatibility of some formulated reduced risk insecticides (abamectin, metaflumizone and chlorantraniliprole) and fungicides (my...

The use of synthetic pesticides as crop protection agents has become the widely accepted ecological weapon for higher crop production. With the restricted use of most of the organochlorine insecticides, the organophosphorus compounds are taking the major share of insecticide consumption in India (Adityachaudhury et al., 1997). Chlorpyrifos [O, O diethylO-(3, 5, 6trichloro-2-pyridyl) phosphoroth...

Arthropods are an important group of macroorganisms that work to maintain ecosystem health. Despite the agricultural benefits of chemical control against arthropod pests, insecticides can cause environmental damage. We examined the effects of one and two applications of the insecticides chlorfenapyr (0.18 liters a.i. ha-1) and methamidophos (0.45 liters a.i. ha-1), both independently and in com...

A well-controlled growth environment with plants that are not unduly stressed is essential for Arabidopsis molecular biology research. Even if they do not kill the plants outright, insect pests and microbial pathogens can cause subtle changes in gene expression or plant metabolism that affect experimental results. Therefore, regular scouting for infestations, frequent cleaning of plant growth a...

Increased homogeneity of agricultural landscapes in the last century has led to a loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, management practices such as wildflower borders offer supplementary resources to many beneficial arthropods. There is evidence that these borders can increase beneficial arthropod abundance, including natural enemies of many pests. However, this increase in loc...

Biological control using entomopathogenic fungi could be a promising alternative to chemical control. Entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin, Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschnikoff) Sorokin, Lecanicillium lecanii (Zimmerm.) Zare and Gams, and Paecilomyces fumosoroseus (Wize) Brown and Smith, were tested for their pathogenicity, ovicidal effect, and median lethal concentrat...