Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Additional Plants: flowers, greenhouse, ornamentals

• Pollinators: other

Target Pests

• Target Pests: aphids

Practices

• Pest Management: chemical control, pesticide application timing, pesticide resistance management, pesticides

• Crop Production: greenhouses, nurseries, pollination/pollinator health/habitat

• Natural Resources/Environment: wildlife

1. Project Summary
a. The problem and opportunity
Insect pests reduce ornamental plant health and marketability, and their presence frequently requires insecticide use to produce a saleable product. Unfortunately, insecticides used during plant production and maintenance can pose significant risks to adult and larval pollinators. Pollinators play a critical role in U.S. agriculture, contributing pollination services valued between $150 million and $19 billion per year. Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management (IPPM) is an alternative management framework that seeks to minimize the impacts of insect pest management on pollinators while still controlling key insect pests.
Many IPPM strategies rely on comprehensive toxicological data to understand the susceptibility of pollinators to insecticides, the severity of potential adverse impacts, and the duration of hazardous effects. Currently, most pollinator toxicological data focus on bee species, primarily bumble bees and honey bees. Although bees are important pollinators, many other insect taxa provide valuable pollination services and fulfill critical ecological roles. Lepidopterans (i.e., butterflies and moths) pollinate plants as adults, fulfill important ecological functions as herbivores, and play a major role in supporting food webs as larvae. Despite frequent insecticide use during plant production and maintenance, we have a poor understanding of how current pest management practices affect lepidoptera conservation.

b. Approach
Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus, L.) are a widespread, charismatic lepidopteran, and recent population declines of over 80% have spurred widespread conservation interest and action. Monarch larvae are dietary specialists that only feed on milkweed (Asclepias spp.), and thus conservation efforts focus on producing and planting milkweed. A major challenge to milkweed production is the presence of a key sap-feeding pest, the oleander aphid (Aphis nerii, Fonscolombe). Oleander aphids cause leaf chlorosis and senescence, sooty mold growth, and plant death. Consequently, milkweed is frequently treated with insecticides during production to produce a saleable plant. However, these insecticides may reduce or eliminate the conservation value of milkweed by imposing toxic effects on monarch visitors. This combination of factors makes the monarch butterfly-oleander aphid-milkweed system an ideal model for developing IPPM strategies for beneficial lepidopteran conservation. We will identify insecticide active ingredients, application rates, treatment windows, and management programs that are compatible with beneficial insect conservation, but control key pests. This research will result in a cost:benefit analysis framework to inform the economic viability of our results. We will share our results with the scientific community through peer-reviewed papers and an organized research symposium, and with the green industry through extension products and coordinated training events.

c. Anticipated impact
Mounting evidence indicates that public interested in conserving beneficial wildlife has never been greater, and that urbanized landscapes can support wildlife if managed appropriately. The U.S. ornamental plant industry has an annual economic impact of over $150 billion and supports more than two million jobs in the U.S. In Florida, where this work will occur, the ornamental plant industry has an estimated economic impact of $21 billion, ranking second in the nation. We will leverage a major ornamental plant industry and consumer interest in wildlife-friendly plants to generate strong positive economic and environmental impacts.
This project aims to enhance the sustainability of ornamental plant production by developing IPPM recommendations for the largest ornamental plant industry in the Southeast. A long-term goal is to create a certification process by which ornamental growers can market their products as wildlife-friendly based on their production practices, providing an avenue for sustained economic viability and enhanced environmental quality. Our results will have implications for beneficial insect conservation and key pest management across diverse agronomic and urban systems, and this work will directly reach ornamental plant industry stakeholders throughout Florida and the Southeast.

Planned Outputs:

1. Develop new evidence-based IPPM recommendations for controlling key sap-feeding insect pests while mitigating impacts to lepidopteran pollinators during ornamental plant production.

2. Conduct cost: benefit analyses to determine the economic viability and effectiveness of IPPM recommendations for nursery growers and landscape management professionals.

3. Write one scientific publication disseminating results of experiments.

4. Write one extension publication aimed at green industry professionals disseminating the IPPM strategies developed as a result of the experiments.

5. Organize and moderate a research symposium at the Entomological Society of America annual meeting focused on the latest advancements in IPPM research and extension in the U.S., with emphasis on the Southeast.

6. Organize and host an Extension workshop for industry professionals about IPPM in ornamental plant production systems at the annual Florida Nursery Growers and Landscape Association Convention.

Anticipated Outcomes:

Increased wildlife conservation value of ornamental plants and reduced pesticide exposure risk to beneficial insects during and after ornamental plant production in the largest ornamental plant industry in the Southeast. Also builds the framework to create a potential value-added economic opportunity for growers to certify plants as wildlife friendly.

Increased adoption and adherence to IPPM recommendations to protect pollinators during ornamental plant production.

Improved economic outcomes for growers.

Increased knowledge of the hazards of insecticide use during ornamental plant production among researchers and academic professionals.

Increased knowledge of IPPM strategies to mitigate risks of pest management during ornamental plant production among nursery growers, county extension agents, the public, and pest management professionals.

Increased knowledge of IPPM tactics and recommendations, generation of research and extension collaborations, and development of more diverse and integrated research, extension, and pest management ideas.

Increased knowledge and implementation of IPPM tactics and recommendations among nursery growers, county extension agents, the public, and pest management professionals.

Ultimately, this project will result in improved wildlife and pollinator conservation value of ornamental plants.