The primary goal of the commercial insectary is to satisfy the customer. However, providing an abundant and consistent supply of high-quality natural enemies that can be effectively used in integrated pest management programs is not always sufficient to accomplish that goal. Such an environmentally sensitive product, composed primarily of living organisms, must be produced, delivered, and applied with special care to achieve the desired outcome. Of utmost importance is the customers’ ability to recognize the results arising from the application of these natural enemies and to compare competitive products. Therefore, a reliable quality assurance program, consisting of comprehensive quality control and extensive customer involvement, is highly desirable. Specific examples to illustrate various aspects of a quality assurance program are taken from experiences with some representative arthropods: predaceous insects, Chrysoperla spp.; a predaceous mite, Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot; and egg parasitoids, Trichogramma spp. In the insectary, a quality control program is normally made up of 3 major components: production control, process control, and product control. Standards (i.e., predetermined specifications) are established to measure variables throughout the system, such as temperature, humidity, content or quality of diet, fecundity, rate of growth, survival, vigor, sex ratio, and numbers. Methods of storage, packaging, and transport are included as a part of the transition between quality control and customer involvement. Customer involvement is an integral part of a quality assurance program. An effective educational program is necessary to ensure that the customers’ expectations of quality are compatible with reality and that they know how to evaluate the product on arrival and how to use it most effectively. Customer feedback is important to refine information flow and guide product improvement, thereby leading to product optimization and repeat sales.
A nutrient-based feeding stimulant and a diaminostilbene disulfonic acid-derived enhancer (fluorescent brightener, Blankophor BBH®; Burlington Chemical, Burlington, NC) were evaluated as adjuvants for the nuclear polyhedrosis virus of the celery looper, Anagrapha falcifera (Kirby) (AfMNPV), against the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hübner), on collard, Brassica oleracea L. (Acephala group), cv. ‘Vates’. Tests included holding larvae on sprayed potted plants in the laboratory and bioassays of foliage collected from sprayed plants in the field. The feeding stimulant increased virus-caused mortality in all tests. The enhancer increased virus-caused mortality in the bioassays of field-collected foliage but not in the test of potted plants. Treatments with both materials maintained the greatest levels of activity over time in the field. At the concentration tested on potted plants (up to 0.5% of the spray), the enhancer may have acted as a feeding deterrent. Therefore, on the whole plants, where the larvae were free to move around, effects on feeding behavior may have reduced the effectiveness of the enhancer. In the bioassay of field-collected foliage, larvae were confined on small pieces of foliage and, thus, did not have the option of moving away from the enhancer. Because the enhancer and the feeding stimulant have both been previously reported to also protect viruses from degradation by ultraviolet light, exposure to sunlight in the field could also have contributed to differences in larval mortality.
The practical use of pheromones and other attractants for insect pest management involves unfamiliar complexities since their properties and modes of action differ greatly from those of insecticides. Feeding stimulants, food attractants, and other synthetic attractants are also used extensively, especially for a number of Diptera. The usefulness of attractants and other methods in managing particular pest populations is determined by a number of factors. Dispersal, especially of gravid females, is a factor that must be addressed before any use is made of pheromones and other attractants, sexual sterility, or other genetic manipulation. Pheromones and other chemical attractants may continue to be used like pesticides, that is, by the grower on a field-by-field basis. Thus as chemical attractants are developed, each use will have to be reviewed carefully as to determine what institutional arrangements are necessary for successful use, with the characteristics of the attractant and the pest in mind.
Journal Article The Celery Looper (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) Baculovirus: Potency and Enhancement by Blankophor BBH Against 3 Lepidopteran Species Get access Robert R. Farrar, JR., Robert R. Farrar, JR. 1 Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 1 Current address: Insect Biocontrol Laboratory, USDA–ARS, Building 306, Room 322, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD 20705. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Richard L. Ridgway Richard L. Ridgway 2 Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 2 Insect Biocontrol Laboratory, USDA–ARS, Building 306, Room 322, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD 20705. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Environmental Entomology, Volume 26, Issue 6, 1 December 1997, Pages 1461–1469, https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/26.6.1461 Published: 01 December 1997 Article history Received: 06 December 1996 Accepted: 31 July 1997 Published: 01 December 1997
Semithin (0.5-2.0 μm) sections of plastic embedded specimens have long been used for identifying and orienting structures destined for electron microscopic observation. Improved staining methods and the development of more versatile plastics have increased the use of semithin plastic sections for histochemical and autoradiographic studies. The principal advantage of plastic over paraffin sections is the possibility of increased resolution. This advantage is often compromised, however, by problems arising during processing and staining. Wrinkles are common in sections containing tissues of different consistencies or when the hardness of the tissue does not match that of the surrounding plastic (Millonig 1980). Unfortunately, many of the methods designed to eliminate wrinkles (e.g., Alsop 1974, Sommer et al. 1979) require prolonged staining or repeated handling of the sections. Section adhesion problems usually arise during staining, particularly if the protocol requires alkaline or oxidizing reagents. Adhesives such as Mayer's albumen or chrome alum-gelatin (Hayat 1981) work well but may contribute to undesirable background staining or trapping of debris. A more complicated problem, inadequate stain contrast for photomicrography, usually can be traced to inability of the stain to penetrate the plastic, staining of the plastic, or nonspecific staining of the tissue. Alkaline staining solutions and chemicals which etch plastic can increase penetration, but may also cause section loss or staining of the plastic. The following is a simple method to eliminate these processing problems. It exploits the solvent properties and low surface tension of glycerol to aid in softening, flattening, and adhering semithin plastic sections to microscope slides.
ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVArticleNEXTUse of selected plastics in controlled release granular formulations of aldicarb and dimethoateRichard A. Stokes, James R. Coppedge, Don L. Bull, and Richard L. RidgwayCite this: J. Agric. Food Chem. 1973, 21, 1, 103–108Publication Date (Print):January 1, 1973Publication History Published online1 May 2002Published inissue 1 January 1973https://doi.org/10.1021/jf60185a032Request reuse permissionsArticle Views54Altmetric-Citations8LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit PDF (748 KB) Get e-Alertsclose Get e-Alerts
Journal Article Host Plant Effects on Activity of Bacillus thuringiensis Against Gypsy Moth (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) Larvae Get access Robert R. Farrar, Jr., Robert R. Farrar, Jr. Insect Bioeontrol Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Building 402, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD 20705 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Phyllis A. W. Martin, Phyllis A. W. Martin Insect Bioeontrol Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Building 402, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD 20705 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Richard L. Ridgway Richard L. Ridgway Insect Bioeontrol Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Building 402, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD 20705 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Environmental Entomology, Volume 25, Issue 5, 1 October 1996, Pages 1215–1223, https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/25.5.1215 Published: 01 October 1996 Article history Received: 06 October 1995 Accepted: 13 June 1996 Published: 01 October 1996
The relationship between the number of male gypsy moths, Lymantria Dispar (L.), captured in pheromone traps and subsequent egg-mass density in the area surrounding each pheromone trap was determined for traps baited with either 1 or 500 mg of (+)-disparlure. Traps were located along transects that extended from within diflubenzuron-treated spray blocks, in which gypsy moth populations were low (252.0 egg masses per ha), to adjoining areas with high populations (3,390.4 egg masses per ha) that had either been treated with Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner or left untreated and that were associated with defoliation of oak, Quercus spp. Traps containing low-dose lures captured means of 5.4 and 32.9 moths in the low and high gypsy moth population density areas, respectively. Traps containing high-dose lures captured means of 431.1 and 874.4 moths in the low and high density areas. Trap captures for both lure doses were significantly correlated with subsequent egg-mass density. Numbers of surviving female pupae under burlap averaged 0.16 and 1.11 per cm in the low- and high-population density areas, respectively. Pupal numbers were also significantly correlated with subsequent egg-mass density. Functional relationships between trap catches and subsequent egg-mass densities for traps containing low- and high-dose lures are given, which explain 60 and 65% of the variation, respectively.
