Assessing attract-and-kill as a new management strategy for Japanese beetle in Wisconsin vineyards

View the project final report

Commodities

• Fruits: grapes

Practices

• Crop Production: pollination, pollinator habitat
• Pest Management: chemical control, field monitoring/scouting, integrated pest management

Popillia japonica Newman (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) feeding negatively impacts many plant species, including grapes, potentially reducing fruit quality and yield. Chemical control, representing the current grower standard, relies on frequent broadcast applications of broad-spectrum insecticides, with alternative management strategies mostly lacking. Attract-and-kill (A&K) is a behavioral management strategy that combines semiochemical attractants and a killing agent on a substrate. This study assessed the impact of A&K on P. japonica in Wisconsin vineyards, with objectives to (1) assess the impact of A&K on the number of P. japonica adults in vineyards, and (2) assess the impact of A&K on P. japonica feeding injury to grape foliage compared to the grower standard. This two-year study was conducted at four commercial vineyards with a grower standard control and an A&K treatment. The A&K treatment consisted of commercial lures, each placed on outside-edge grapevines and weekly applications of carbaryl on the plants holding lures, while the grower standard received neither. The A&K treatment experienced similar numbers of P. japonica adults and proportions of leaf injury compared to the grower standard. The use of A&K reduced by 96% the crop area treated with insecticides compared to the grower standard. The area treated by A&K was at the edge of the vineyards where more leaf injury occurred regardless of treatment. Attract-and-kill is a targeted approach that was effective at managing P. japonica and reducing chemical inputs on a small scale.  It has potential to be scaled up and refined to provide growers with a new management strategy.  

The expected learning outcomes for this project are as follows: 1) researchers and grape growers will learn how A&K compares to current grower standard practices for JB management; 2) researchers and grape growers will learn how A&K impacts bee abundance and diversity compared to current grower standard practices. The expected action outcomes of this project are as follows: 1) grape growers will start implementing A&K in their vineyard as a management strategy for JB; 2) using A&K, grape growers will experience JB management results comparable to that of current management practices, while decreasing the negative effects of pesticide applications.