Unlocking the keys to beneficials

From Southern SARE:

RALEIGH, North Carolina – Entomologists with North Carolina State University have unlocked a few secrets in the life cycle of a tiny beneficial wasp that parasitizes stinkbug eggs. The findings increase the potential for biological control of stinkbugs, reducing the need for insecticides.

Sriyanka Lahiri, a NCSU graduate student, received a Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SSARE) Graduate Student Grant to study the overwintering and nutrition requirements of Telenomus podisi– a minute parasitic wasp that kills stinkbug embryos in egg masses and replaces them with its own young. NCSU associate professor David Orr was also a project participant.

“The main emphasis of the project was to better understand the biology of the parasitic wasp,” said Orr. “If we can identify bottlenecks in its life cycle, we can use that information to enhance the populations of the parasitoid in the field as a biological control.”

Lahiri said that Telemonus podisi is an important native beneficial insect because it attacks several species of stinkbugs, including the brown stinkbug, the green stinkbug, the southern green stinkbug, and the rice stinkbug. Stinkbugs are a major crop pest. However, little is known about the wasp’s habitat preferences and nutritional requirements.

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