Project Code: PRR22-010
Project Lead: Todd Kabaluk - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Objective: To determine if a drone can effectively deliver a lethal dose of an entomopathogen to click beetles and if efficacy can be enhanced with the addition of a mating disruption pheromone.
Various genera and species of wireworms (Family Elateridae), the larval stage of click beetles, are estimated to cause in excess of $15M of economic damage annually to important agricultural crops in Canada. Relying on a single control method for wireworms is unsustainable. For instance, cultural and mechanical tactics do not offer an adequate level of population reduction in crops, and insecticides are subject to wireworm behavior and regulatory changes. However, even when wireworm levels are successfully reduced within an agricultural field, invasion of adult click beetles from natural habitats bordering cropped fields continues. Therefore, reducing click beetle populations in surrounding natural ecosystems, otherwise known as refugia, while maintaining other resident beneficial organisms valued for their ecosystem services, may concomitantly reduce economic damage caused by the larval stage in agricultural crops.
Two novel alternative products being developed by the AAFC researchers (not yet available commercially), have been identified as suitable candidates to target click beetles in refugia: i) the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium brunneum strain LRC112 (‘MetLRC112’); and ii) a mating disruption pheromone, which has been shown to disorient male beetles, alluding to their value in disrupting beetle mating and proliferation. To target click beetles in natural habitats bordering cropland, an UAV, aka ‘drone’ is required to allow access to agro-ecological spaces that are impossible to reach with other application equipment.
The practicality of use and efficacy of MetLRC112 alone, and MetLRC112 combined with pheromone granules, applied using a drone to deliver the treatments to small research plots will be evaluated in Agassiz, British Columbia in 2022. Click beetles will be introduced into the plots prior to application of MetLRC112 with and without pheromone granules. Following application of the test products, click beetles will be sampled from the research plots for four consecutive weeks and their mortality will be assessed. Opportunities and constraints associated with introducing these novel products for wireworm management in commercial agriculture will be identified and shared.