With the onset of cooler, fall weather, the 2017-2018 strawberry season has arrived in west central Florida, and the Renkema entomology lab has an exciting array of research projects kicking off this month. Here’s a summary of our research plans for the upcoming season…
Babu Panthi, PhD student
Another strawberry season has started, and I am sampling to determine chilli thrips distribution in commercial strawberry fields in Plant City. We will finish our first round of sampling before the end of October (~10 fields this year), and plan to sample again in November. Near the end of the season when the temperature rises, we will collect for the third time to record chilli thrips abundance in the field.
Our greenhouse study results suggested that chilli thrips do not disperse widely and rarely move to adjacent plants from the point of inoculation. To support our finding, we replicated the greenhouse experiment in strawberry plants in field plots. We expect to see the same results as in our greenhouse study.
At the end of October, we will characterize the relationship between plant damage and chilli thrips density. A variable number of adult chilli thrips will be released into nylon mesh cages covering individual strawberry plants and resulting plant damage will be measured at the end of the experiment.
Our next project will test the efficacy of two biocontrol agents: predatory mite (Amblyseius swirskii) and minute pirate bug (Orius insidiosus), against chilli thrips in strawberry plants in the field.
Iris Strzyzewski, PhD student
This season, I will continue with our flowering plants project using wildflowers as a resource and potential refuge for pollinators and natural enemies of pest insects. At the research station, we will test different combinations of Spanish needles, sweet alyssum, blanket flower, and borage to determine the types of pollinators and natural enemies that are attracted throughout the season. We also have experiments in place at two
grower fields. At both locations, we planted Spanish needle and sweet alyssum in the edge row, and in one of the locations, we planted a mix of sweet alyssum, blanket flower, and borage in the row in the middle of the field. This will serve as a corridor to guide beneficial insects into the field to help increase pollination and biological control services in strawberry.
Darsy Smith, graduate student intern
This fall, in Dr. Renkema’s laboratory I am doing research on two projects: (1) Evaluation of repellency of alyssum and alyssum compounds to spotted-wing drosophila, and (2) Evaluation of new products for control of fall armyworm on strawberry. I am also collaborating on other research projects of my lab partners!
Dr. Braden Evans, post-doc
I’m continuing my work from last season on the influence of miticide rotations in North Carolina nursery fields on twospotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) resistance in Florida production fields. Ryan Batts and I made the trip to Mills River, NC, to meet with Dr. Jim Walgenbach’s group and collect the nursery plants they’d been growing over the summer. The plants have been transplanted into our production fields at the GCREC and, unlike the local growers, we’re looking for an abundance of spider mites this year!
I’m also excited about some other experiments I’ll be conducting over the coming months, including; evaluating the effect of strawberry plant canopy size and structure on miticide spray coverage; interactions of root symbionts (mycorrhizae, rhyzobacteria) and antagonists (root knot nematode) on plant nutrients and resulting spider mite infestations; screening Florida-bound nursery plants for spider mite infestations; evaluating aerial dispersal of TSSM from vegetable fields into strawberry fields; reviewing and testing predatory mite (Phytoseiulus persimilis) susceptibility to common pesticides in strawberry; characterizing the interactions between entomopathogenic nematodes and spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii); evaluating the efficacy of UV and steam treatments against different mite pests; and, hopefully, examining the relative distributions of co-occurring populations of chilli thrips (Scirtothrips dorsalis) and twospotted spider mites on strawberries with my colleague, Babu Panthi.
Dr. Karol Krey, post-doc
Since my arrival I have established a “molecular corner” in the Renkema lab space. I keep it super clean with DNA/RNA away. The lab is all ready for DNA extractions, PCR, and gel electrophoresis! I have already qualified primers for several common pests in Florida strawberries and I am continuing to collect new pests found in field and test them using the working primers. The picture above is one of my gels that shows bands of pests detected with one primer candidate. The pesky chilli thrips needed a different primer, as you can see no band there. Soon, I will be out collecting predators in organic strawberry fields around the area. I will also be sampling in fields that have flowering companion plants to see what predators arrive and what they are eating. Once I have these predators, I will see how well the primers work in detecting known food pests they have eaten. The next step will be the use of next-gen sequencing of the predators’ gut DNA. Here, I will see what pests the predators are eating out in the fields. Additionally, I am learning and contributing on an experiment with a pesticide trial!
Marc Santos, research assistant
Although I typically stick with experiment maintenance and equipment fabrication, I was given the opportunity to coordinate a series of trials with lab manager, Sashan Devkota, as our lab branched out into fire ant territory. We are testing the efficacy of some new bait products, as well as insecticides, in a series of week-long trials. The project requires that we keep several fire ant colonies going in controlled lab environments and we currently maintain anywhere from four to six colonies at a time, each stocked with thousands of the little fiery female warriors.
Strawberry & Small Fruit Entomology 
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