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How OSU Researchers Are Addressing The Problem Of Insect Pests On Wheat

OSU Research Matters is a bi-weekly look inside the work of Oklahoma State University faculty, staff and students.

For Oklahoma wheat producers, insect pests have always been a concern. In this episode, Dr. Kenneth Sewell speaks with Dr. Chris Giles, a professor of entomology and plant pathology, to learn how researchers at OSU are focused on finding unique ways to address this problem.

TRANSCRIPT:

SEWELL: Why over the past few decades, have we not had the aphid outbreaks that were characteristic of periods before that?

GILES: Well, it's interesting. I think there's a lot of factors involved and those factors involved plant breeding. They involve detection of pests, and they also involve conservation of insect natural enemies, in particular conservation of parasitoid wasps.

SEWELL: When you say parasitoid wasps, how is that different from a predator?

GILES: Well, a parasitoid is actually a parasite that kills its host. A parasite would keep its host alive, but some insects have evolved that really the ecological role is to kill their hosts, and that's how they exist in the environment.

SEWELL: What do you mean by "conservation of the natural enemy"?

GILES: In the environment, there are large numbers of species of natural enemies and parasitoid wasps and if we take advantage of the role that they play, their ecological services in reducing pests, and we implement strategies to include that impact, tThat's what we would call conservation biological control.

SEWELL: Is there a weather factor that's involved in us being able to conserve and keep and use more of these natural enemies?

GILES: Well, we live in a part of the country where winter time temperatures are conducive for these natural enemies in winter wheat, but not only that — over the last probably 30 years or so, the average January low is actually a little higher and that's allowed for survivorship of these parasitoid wasps that are active all winter long, and then more of an impact because of that.

SEWELL: So, you and your team have put together all this information over the past few years and developed something that I believe is called Glance and Go, that's very helpful to farmers. Describe that process.

GILES: Yeah. We decided that we needed to integrate all the different concepts: plant breeding sampling for natural enemies, sampling for pests and determination if the aphid pests were at economic levels. And we developed this concept of Glance 'n Go, which is a simplified version for everybody involved — farmers, other stakeholders — to be able to sample and determine whether or not treatment is required based on primarily the number of parasitoid wasps that exists in those wheat fields.

SEWELL: I have read an analysis by USDA that says the economic impact of this Glance 'n Go method over the past 16 years is more than $142 million just in savings, off of pesticides alone. So, that's quite an impact of what you call a simple or a simplified process. Where are you going next with this?

GILES: We've now started a new project in sorghum for a summer crop — same parasitoids exist. And what we want to do is adapt Glance 'n Go holistically over into sorghum and the aphid pests that occur in sorghum.

SEWELL: For OSU Research Matters. I'm Kenneth Sewell.

Dr. Sewell and Dr. Giles will be speaking more in depth on how OSU researchers are addressing insect pests at 'Research On Tap' — Monday, September 20th at Iron Monk Brewery in Stillwater. The informal discussion is open to the public and starts at 5:30 p.m.

If you haven't already, please subscribe to OSU Research Matters on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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