Demonstration of the Effectiveness of Pediobius for Control of Mexican Bean Beetle and Squash Beetle

View the project final report

• 1999 annual report

Commodities

• Vegetables: beans

Practices

• Education and Training: demonstration, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research
• Pest Management: biological control

In the past beans have been killed by Mexican bean beetles by early September we want to demonstrate the parasitic wasps that allow me to produce late beans. We propose to purchase and release pediobius faveatus wasps for the purpose of controlling the Mexican bean beetle and its larvae. An additional benefit of this wasp would be controlling the squash beetle. Wasps are well know to be effective on large areas of soybeans but little information is available for their use in snap bean plantings on smaller scale farms and where there are multiple plantings during the growing season. We will demonstrate to farmers an alternative to pesticides for controlling the Mexican bean beetle. This should be of special interest to organic farmers.