Steve Frank

European pepper moth (Duponchelia fovealis; EPM) is a major, yet largely unrecognized, pest in nursery, vegetable, fruit, and greenhouse crops. This exotic pest has spread rapidly through the Southeastern US since becoming established in 20101. Economic losses are mounting for nursery growers throughout the region as their plants are damaged, destroyed, or returned upon inspection in other states. Despite increasing expenditures for insecticide applications, growers have no reliable management tactics. Management is difficult because information about EPM distribution, phenology, plant preferences, and insecticide susceptibility is limited. Our goal is to develop an integrated pest management program for EPM from the ground up. To achieve this, we will determine EPM distribution, phenology and persistence in TX and NC nurseries, preference for nursery crops grown in throughout the southern region, EPM population response to horticultural practices, and the most effective conventional and biological insecticides and application practices.

Hemlock woolly adelgid is an invasive insect pest that has decimated hemlock forests and hemlock nursery production. This project will improve sustainable hemlock pest management and conservation by developing integrated pest management practices for hemlock production in nurseries to include least toxic insecticides and resistant hemlock genotypes. Hemlocks grown with these practices will protect the environment and will not harm biological control organisms released by state and federal agencies for hemlock conservation in forests.

This is an Extension Implementation Project (EIP). Our Program Priority Areas are IPM Implementation in: Agronomic Crops (28%), Communities (40%), Specialty Crops (24%), and Pollinator Health (8%). The person who will be responsible for grant coordination and budget management, and participation in the SERA3 meetings is Dr. Danesha Seth Carley, Director for the NSF Center for IPM and the Administrative contact is Dr. Rich Bonanno, Director of NC State Extension, and Associate Dean College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Through NC Cooperative Extension programs and diverse transdisciplinary team collaboration, we work to sustain and enhance environmental stewardship, reduce economic risks for growers and consumers, and protect human health by applying integrated pest management (IPM) in all suitable situations. Our goal is to increase coordination and improve efficiency of translating IPM research to the scientific community and stakeholders; as well as the residents of NC through extension and outreach programs. By working to synergize efforts and leverage resources, we are better able to promote development and adoption of IPM through collaborative programs and broad-based stakeholder participation. With a strong team of experts and close association with our Evaluation Specialist, we are able to document the value of IPM strategies and programs, and provide comprehensive success stories of IPM integration across NC. Through the outputs and outcomes from this program, NC Extension agents and stakeholders will become more knowledgeable about IPM and develop the skills necessary to implement IPM strategies in Agronomic Crops, Specialty Crops, Pollinator Health, and IPM in the Communities.

The guiding strategy of the Southeast Climate Science Center (SE CSC) is to provide staffing and institutional support for core SE CSC mission areas. The SE CSC's mission involves supporting researchers and managers to co-produce science connected to management decisions (actionable science), coordinating logistics and communications to bring partners and the community together (within NCSU, with USGS researchers, and across the broader community) to discuss global change impacts to the DOI mission, and training the next generation (graduate students) and current managers on how to use and develop global change science.

Box tree moth is a new exotic insect pest from Europe and Asia. Box tree moth caterpillars feed almost exclusively on boxwood with is an important plant in ornamental landscapes and nurseries. The arrival of this pest can threaten these industries. Our goal is to develop educational material to help growers, landscape managers, and extension personnel monitor for box tree moth and manage infestations.

This project is a collaboration between North Carolina State University Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, NC Extension Service, and cooperating nurseries to develop Integrated Pest Management tactics to reduce the use of neonicotinoid insecticides. Neonicotinoids threaten pollinators and other beneficials but also greenhouse and nursery profits since many wholesale buyers and consumers will not purchase neonicotinoid-treated plants. We will develop IPM protocols for using alternative insecticides, cultural practices and biological control to replace neonicotinoids. Results will be disseminated to growers, extension professionals, and other stakeholders through web resources, extension workshops, and national print publications.

This is an agreement to collect and sort white pine seeds for Woodland Restoration, Inc.

Trees provide critical ecosystem services and social benefits in urban landscapes. These advantages depend on selecting appropriate sites, species, and horticultural varieties that maximize desired services and minimize management costs1-3. The problem addressed in this proposal is that we do not have adequate IPM strategies for protecting the long-term health of trees planted in stressful urban habitats.

Conservation biological control is the practice of attracting and conserving natural enemies in managed ecosystems to reduce pest abundance and damage. Conservation biological control development and implementation requires a system approach since management practices in the target crop and in surrounding habitats both influence alternative foods, natural enemies, and thus pests. Conservation biological control is not a common IPM tactic for turf and trees in ornamental landscapes. In fact, ornamental landscapes are rarely considered as unified systems since IPM for turf and trees are generally developed and implemented without coordination. This leads to economic inefficiency, greater insecticide, and potential interference among management tactics when multiple practitioners visit the same property to implement pest management. Our long-term goal is to integrate IPM development and implementation for turf and woody plants in ornamental landscapes. Our specific objectives are to: 1. Determine if natural enemy abundance is higher and pest density lower in turf near trees compared to turf further from trees; 2. Determine if predation and parasitism of turf pests is greater near trees and at what distance; 3. Produce outreach material promoting the benefits of conservation biological control in landscape IPM.

This project is a collaboration between North Carolina State University Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, NC Extension Service, and cooperating nurseries to develop Integrated Pest Management tactics to reduce the growing economic impact of European pepper moth a new invasive pest. We will document the life cycle, plant preferences, and insecticide efficacy in different climate regions of NC to develop monitoring and scouting procedures and effective insecticide application methods. Results will be disseminated to growers, extension professionals, and other stakeholders through web resources, extension workshops, and national print publications.