Combining an insect deterrent with an attract-and-kill approach to manage striped cucumber beetle

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Presenting Author(s)

Christie Shee

Graduate Research Assistant
Purdue University
Lafayette, Indiana

Co-Author(s)

DW

Don C. Weber

USDA-ARS
Beltsville, Maryland
IK

Ian Kaplan

Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana

Striped cucumber beetle (Acalymma vittatum) is a cucurbit pest that aggregates in response to the male-produced aggregation pheromone, vittatalactone. We used boll-weevil traps containing 1 mg mixed vittatalactone lures as an attractant, with or without kaolin clay applied to plants as a deterrent, to assess a potential new strategy for SCB management. Miniature plots (9m x 9m) of zucchini were assigned the treatments: 1) Trap with lure, 2) Kaolin clay, 3) Trap with lure + kaolin clay, and 4) Neither to determine the effectiveness of these treatments on striped cucumber beetle capture, on-plant counts, plant defoliation, bacterial wilt incidence and marketable yield. Results/conclusions TBD.