• Introduction
• Identification and Classification of Agriculturally and Environmentally Important Insects, Mites, Microbes, and Plants
• Investigation of the Biology of Pest and Beneficial Organisms
• Understanding Pest/Host Interactions and Economic or Environmental Impact
• Investigation of Pest Exclusion and Quarantine Treatment Procedures
• Development of New and Improved Pest Control Technologies
• Integration of Component Technologies into IPM Systems and Development of Areawide Suppression Programs

Introduction

The Crop Protection and Quarantine National Program addresses agricultural problems caused by insect, mite, and weed pests in crop and postharvest systems and natural areas.  Plant pathogens and pest nematodes are excluded, since the Plant Diseases National Program addresses them.  The mission of this national program is to expand the understanding of the biology, ecology and impact of insect, mite, and weed pests on agricultural production systems and on natural ecosystems and to develop, improve, and integrate environmentally safe technologies to exclude, eradicate, or manage pest populations, using sustainable and integrated practices that will enhance the safety, quality, and productivity of United States agricultural production, while protecting natural resources, native ecosystems, human health, and the environment.

A Crop Protection and Quarantine National Program planning workshop was held October 30 - November 2, 2000, in San Diego, California, as a joint planning effort with the Crop Production National Program.  The workshop was designed to obtain customer/stakeholder/ partner input for the Crop Protection and Quarantine National Program and to form ARS component teams to develop a 5-year Action Plan for implementing the results of the workshop.  The workshop was attended by more than 175 participants.  It provided an opportunity for ARS to meet with stakeholders, customers, and partners to assess the appropriateness of ARS research program activities, improve the understanding of customer needs, and promote coordination of research activities among ARS scientists and other public and private groups.  The workshop also was aimed at helping to ensure relevance of the agency's research within the National Program and its components.  As a result of the workshop activities, concepts were developed and incorporated into a 5-year National Program Action Plan.  This workshop was the last of the four planning workshops that have been held for the Crop Protection and Quarantine National Program.  The other three conferences included a workshop on exotic pests and quarantine held January 24-26, 2000, in Honolulu, Hawaii; a workshop on protection of stored commodities from insect pests held October 12-13, 1999, in Manhattan, Kansas; and a workshop on weed science held July 10-12, 2000, in Dulles, Virginia.

ARS has made significant progress in fiscal year 2000 in crop protection and quarantine research.  Some selected examples of progress are listed below, representing a few of the many accomplishments that have been reported from the 198 research projects assigned to this National Program across 50 ARS locations.  ARS now links all of the annual project progress reports, both in-house and those funded extramurally, to this National Program Annual Report.  This allows the reader to obtain additional information on the program's progress and accomplishments.

Selected Accomplishments (Listed by Component)

Identification and Classification of Agriculturally and Environmentally Important Insects, Mites, Microbes, and Plants

A new flea beetle species has been identified from Russia and has potential to control the noxious, invasive leafy spurge weed.  First identified in the United States in 1827, leafy spurge now infests at least 5 million acres in 35 states and Canadian provinces.  The weed degrades grazing lands for livestock and wildlife and reduces land values.  At least six species of flea beetle belonging to the genus Aphthona have been introduced and released in North America as control agents.  ARS scientists in Beltsville, Maryland, working with Russian and Italian scientists have discovered, described, and illustrated a new species, A. russica, and distinguished it from related species--especially those which feed on leafy spurge.  Their report includes new information on several other species of Aphthona that could be used in biological control of weeds.  Correctly identifying the new beetle will aid foreign exploration for other new beneficial insects, quality control of laboratory cultures, and follow-up assessment of the spread and impact of beneficial insect species released for biological control of weeds.

A trip to Mexico in the summer of 1999 resulted in the discovery and identification of several natural biocontrol parasites of a new, invasive insect pest.  In July 1998, a scientist confirmed that an insect collected from a hibiscus plant in Bradenton, Florida, was Paracoccus marginatus - the papaya mealybug.  The Bradenton sample was the first time the papaya mealybug had been found in the continental United States.  It's considered to be a serious pest of papaya on several Caribbean Islands and has also been reported to damage papaya and cassava in Mexico.  In June 1999, ARS and APHIS sent experts to Mexico to search for possible controls.  The experts collected 40 samples of parasites, which included three wasps with potential as biocontrol agents.  Live samples of the wasps and other potential biological control agents were also sent to ARS scientists in the Systematic Entomology Laboratory at Beltsville, Maryland, for identification and to ARS scientists in the Beneficial Insects Research Unit at Newark, Delaware, where the parasites could be reared in quarantine.  After screening them and studying their life cycles in living cultures, the Newark scientists obtained APHIS approval to ship wasp populations to St. Thomas, in the United States Virgin Islands, where APHIS released them this spring in papaya fields for monitoring and behavioral studies.

Distinguishing species of beneficial wasps made easier and faster.  For the first time, scientists have developed an easier, faster way to identify tiny beneficial wasps that control key crop pests in the United States.  ARS scientists at Newark, Delaware, and Cornell University scientists devised a genetic technique that identifies the larvae of several parasitic wasp species.  Previously, scientists had to rear the parasites to their adult stage, a process that took months.  So far, the new method identifies two European parasites: Peristenus digoneutis, a quarter-inch-long wasp that attacks the tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris, a pest of many crops; and P. conradi, which attacks the alfalfa plant bug, Adelphocoris lineolatus.  The Newark lab permanently established both parasites in the field and determined they were spreading in the northeastern United States.

The new method amplifies genetic material unique to the wasp during its early larval stage.  It also detects pest insects that contain parasitic larvae, reducing the need for a skilled dissector to measure parasitism inside the insect pests.  The tarnished plant bug and its western cousin are important pests of crops grown for seed, vegetables, fruits, cotton, and seedling trees throughout the United States.  Annually, they cost tens of millions of dollars in losses and for control.  Successful biological controls are less costly than chemicals for controlling pests that seriously reduce the quantity and quality of crops, and are much less likely to cause environmental problems.

New fungal strain is discovered for control of caterpillar pests.  Mycoinsecticides are fungal sprays that when applied to insect-infested plants, fungal spores attack the pests by penetrating their outer cuticle.  Then the fungus eats them from the inside out.  Spores from dead insects can survive to reinfect subsequent pest generations.  For example, one new strain of the Beauveria bassiana fungus (known as BB-1200) appears to be more effective in curbing caterpillar pests than its close relative, the commercially available GHA strain.  Long-standing collaborations between ARS scientists in Ithaca, New York, and Mycotech Corp., Butte, Montana, led to the discovery that spores of Beauveria strain GHA can control many important insect pests of agricultural crops like cabbage, broccoli, cucumbers and greenhouse ornamentals.  This discovery led to developing the commercial products Mycotrol and BotaniGard, which have been registered for use in the United States, Mexico, and other countries for biological control of grasshoppers, whiteflies, aphids, thrips, and diamondback moths.

After GHA's discovery, the search intensified for a more virulent, broad-spectrum mycoinsecticide effective against a large group of lepidopteran (caterpillar) pests.  In June 1999, scientists in ARS' fungal-screening program at Ithaca discovered the high virulence and exceptionally broad lepidopteran host range of the new Beauveria BB-1200 strains, originally taken from a diamondback moth.  Laboratory bioassays showed BB-1200 consistently exhibited virulence equal to or greater than the GHA strain against all lepidopteran pests tested.  Included were fall armyworm, beet armyworm, black cutworm, corn borer and cabbage looper-pests not highly susceptible to GHA.  These lepidopteran defoliators are among the most destructive pests of important crops like corn and cabbage.

Investigation of the Biology of Pest and Beneficial Organisms

Listening to the feeding sounds of Asian longhorned beetles may give scientists a clue as to which trees are infested.  First found in the United States infesting trees in New York in 1996 and in Chicago in 1998, Asian longhorned beetles (ALB) have been intercepted at ports in 17 states.  If the pest spreads unchecked into United States urban and forest lands, it could cause billions of dollars in damage.  So far, the only solution to the problem has been to remove infested trees.  ARS scientists at Newark, Delaware, have uncovered new information never before recorded on ALB behavior.  The scientists and colleagues at the State University of New York-Syracuse are working with a specialist on a feeding noise recognition system.  It generates an acoustic 'fingerprint' as the beetle larvae feed within the two different tree tissues that they commonly inhabit--inner bark and inner wood.  A functional prototype detection system should be available within a year.

A tiny Amazonian fly called Thrypticus that attacks water hyacinth has for the first time been reared in large numbers.  Water hyacinth mats infest ponds, lakes, and streams across the South and in California and Hawaii.  The impacts are less drinking and irrigation water, blocked boat travel, clogged pumping stations, and damaged water quality.  The mats also choke out other aquatic plants and can make a waterway uninhabitable for native fish and other animals.  Natural control is essential to the weed's long-term control; herbicides and mechanical removal can be costly and ineffective.  Thrypticus could become the first new insect imported to fight water hyacinth since the 1970s.  ARS scientists in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and colleagues discovered the new species in 1999 in the upper Amazon River basin.  Immature Thrypticus flies feed within inflated stalks known as petioles that connect the leaves to the stems.  The flies' tunneling can let in microbes to further weaken or kill a plant.  This is a crucial step toward determining whether the flies are suitable to be imported and test-released against this aquatic weed in the United States.  

In December 1999, ARS scientists in Argentina released hundreds of adult Thrypticus on water hyacinth in an outdoor cage.  The flies reproduced by the thousands.  Since 1996, the scientists have found 11 new South American species that attack water hyacinth and its relatives.  These include six Thrypticus, three Taosa plant hoppers, and two Megamelus plant hoppers.  The scientists are screening them to identify the best biocontrol candidates.  They are also making sure water hyacinth is the only plant the insects damage.

One of the mechanisms causing tobacco budworm's growing resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin may have been uncovered.  Bt toxin causes the insect's mature gut cells to swell, burst, and die.  Using tobacco budworm midgut cells cultured in the laboratory, an ARS scientist at Beltsville, Maryland, found the toxin killed many of the cells.  But some cells responded to the injury by producing cytokines, substances that signal gut stem cells to multiply and rapidly produce new mature gut cells.  When the Bt toxin was washed from the cultured gut cells, the new healthy cells quickly replaced the dying ones.  This suggests that if the dose of Bt is insufficient or if the insect has developed a way to more rapidly replace its destroyed gut cells, the midgut will heal and function normally.  This could explain why low doses of Bt toxin fail to kill insects.

Artificial diets have been developed for raising and later release of natural enemies for control of coffee pests.  Coffee represents about $12 billion worth of trade in the international commodity markets and is the key export commodity for Central and South America, as well as large parts of Africa.  The production and re-export of organic, high-quality coffee blends are a growing area for the United States food industry.  Significant pest pressures, primarily from the coffee berry borer, substantially reduce earnings and contribute to environmental degradation, due to the over use of pesticides, primarily endosulfans.  Classical biological control releases of parasitoids, have proven effective, but rearing costs are not yet competitive with insecticides.

ARS scientists at Starkeville, Mississippi, and Beltsville, Maryland, in cooperation with CABI Biosciences, the International Coffee Organization, and the Government of Colombia, have conducted a coordinated program to develop cost-effective diets for rearing parasitoids.  Currently, diet-reared parasitoids cost as little as $15 per hectare annually to apply; the long-term goal is to reduce costs to about $8 per hectar/annum.  There are ongoing field trials in Colombia; Chiapas, Mexico; and Costa Rica.  Preliminary releases of parasitoids at Cali, Colombia, and Clarendon, Jamaica, have proven successful.

Understanding Pest/Host Interactions and Economic or Environmental Impact

Microbial 'weed wackers' imported from abroad could be used against yellow starthistle, mile-a-minute, and other invasive weeds that have encroached on crops, rangeland, parks, pastures, and other privately owned lands.  Microbes, including fungi, bacteria and viruses, can sicken destructive weeds by causing disease.  Because like their weedy hosts, they are of foreign origin, the microbes must undergo a battery of tests to ensure that they pose no danger to crops, domestic plant relatives, or the environment.  The biocontrol 'boot camp' in which such studies take place is the ARS Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit in Fort Detrick, Maryland.  As the nation's largest facility for studying whole plants under microbial containment conditions, the ARS lab is the first stop in a national, multiagency campaign to reunite invasive weeds with natural enemies from their homelands.  One microbial recruit to pass muster is the rust fungus Puccinia carduorum.  It has worked with the seed head weevil, Rhynocyllus conicus, to hold down exotic musk thistle populations--its natural host--which reduced up to 90 percent in some regions since the weevil was released in the late 1960s.  Biocontrol agents like Puccinia are seen as long-term alternatives to chemical and other controls because of cost, environmental concerns, and other reasons.

ARS scientists have been monitoring field populations of tobacco budworm and cotton bollworm for tolerance to Bt.  Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton has proven effective at controlling cotton bollworms, but the potential development of resistance is a growing concern.  ARS scientists are investigating the genetic basis of resistance and intrinsic tolerance to the toxin in cotton insects, and in secondary pests, such as the beet and fall armyworm.  The scientists, at Stoneville, Mississippi, developed a more rapid and sensitive bioassay procedure to better identify cotton bollworms with resistance to Bt cotton.  The bioassay requires only a minimum of five insects collected from the field to identity resistance genes.  The scientists demonstrated that commercial cultivars of transgenic Bt cotton do not provide the same level of activity against caterpillar pests, since the amount of Bt present in the plant is cultivar dependent.  

ARS is the agency responsible for conducting a Bt resistance-monitoring program in the southern United States.  The new resistance monitoring bioassay is an essential tool for the resistance-monitoring program and for the early detection of Bt resistance in cotton bollworm populations from the 12 cotton-growing states in the southern United States.  The utility of the system has been demonstrated as reliable abroad (cotton in Australia) and in the southern United States so that alternative tactics can be used in areas where resistance to Bt transgenic cotton appears.  The technology will help growers in their cultivar selections, as well as providing insight into population dynamics of migratory moths in transgenic crops.

Bt corn: less insect damage, lower mycotoxin levels, healthier corn.  Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn that has been genetically modified to prevent damage by European corn borers may also be less likely to harbor mycotoxins, toxins produced by fungi on corn ears.   Mycotoxins, like fumonisin, a potential cancer-causing agent often found at elevated levels in insect-damaged kernels, are a health and an export issue.  European and Asian markets can refuse to import United States corn because of what they rate as unacceptable levels of mycotoxins.

Scientists have suspected higher mycotoxin levels may follow increased insect damage, but ARS scientists at Peoria, Illinois, found fumonisin levels 30- to 40-fold lower in Bt corn than in non-Bt varieties in Illinois cornfields.  Environmental conditions and the specific Bt corn hybrid play roles in the actual amount of reduction seen, but corn varieties that expressed the Bt protein throughout the plant rather than in specific areas were the least likely to have significant fumonisin levels.  While Bt corn is modified mainly to resist European corn borers, Bt corn also showed lower levels of mycotoxins when corn earworms were present in fields, although not as significant a reduction as when European corn borers were the primary insect pest.  This may encourage the creation of corn varieties with more resistance to a variety of insects in order to provide more protection from mycotoxins.

Investigation of Pest Exclusion and Quarantine Treatment Procedures

Mates-only strain of Mediterranean fruit fly for eradication programs.  A scientist from the ARS United States Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, Hilo, Hawaii, in collaboration with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) scientists conducted large-scale tests in Guatemalan coffee fields of a males-only strain of medflies known as Temperature-Sensitive Lethal (TSL) strain.  These tests showed that the TSL strain of medflies may be three to five times more effective in eradicating infestations than today's conventional, mixed-sex strains of sterile medflies.  Not only does this strain promise increased efficacy for eradication efforts in the United States, but because only males need be raised, it also offers increased economy for eradication efforts that often run in the tens of millions of dollars.

Avidin, a common protein in human diets, inhibits insect development in stored grain.  A scientist and colleagues working at the Grain Marketing and Production Research Center in Manhattan, Kansas, were the first to report that avidin, an egg white protein, has a lethal effect on stored-product beetles and moths.  Using corn meal made from transgenic corn that produces avidin, they were able to demonstrate insect resistance and consequent longer shelf life.  If the United States Food and Drug Administration approves avidin-producing corn for human food consumption, these findings offer the possibility of controlling insects that cost the farmer millions of dollars in lost product during storage with a non-chemical alternative to toxic pesticides.

Spinosad, an environmentally friendly insecticide, may become a widely accepted alternative to the malathion sprays used today for battling Mediterranean fruit fly.  ARS tests in Hawaiian coffee fields showed that even though malathion insecticide gave the best results in controlling medfly, spinosad and another promising malathion alternative -- a red dye known as phloxine B -- also gave impressive levels of control.  The results also suggested that spinosad and phloxine B may need to be applied more frequently than malathion, but the total amount of active ingredient released into the environment would be far less.  In addition, one of medfly's important natural enemies--the tiny Fopius arisanus wasp--was significantly less susceptible to spinsosad or phloxine B than to malathion.  The wasp is harmless to humans.

The Hawaii tests were some of the most extensive field studies ever conducted on the effect of the three chemicals on the medfly and the beneficial wasp.  Medflies can attack more than 200 fruit, vegetable, and nut crops and pose a constant threat to agriculture in warm-weather states such as California, Texas, and Florida.  Spinosad is already approved for use on more than 100 crops, including apples, almonds, citrus, eggplant, tomatoes, and cotton.

Development of New and Improved Pest Control Technologies

United States corn farmers now have three new products to choose from to control adult corn rootworms. Corn rootworms are the target of almost half of the insecticides used in row crops, and they drive up the cost of farming in the Corn Belt and Texas, which ranks seventh in corn production.  ARS has evaluated three new products in a national areawide integrated pest management (IPM) project, as part of USDA's commitment to reduce reliance on agricultural chemicals.  ARS scientists in College Station, Texas, showed that with proper timing and application methods, these three new products could cut corn rootworm damage while having little or no harmful effect on the environment.  The first product evaluated was Slam, made by MicroFlo, Inc., of Lakeland, Florida.  Slam is based on ARS research in Brookings, South Dakota.  The second product was CideTrak, developed under a cooperative research and development agreement between ARS and Trece Inc., in Salinas, California.  CideTrak uses an insect-feeding stimulant and low-dose toxicants.  The third product, Invite, marketed by Florida Food Products AgroTech. Inc., Eustis, Florida, includes Hawksberry watermelon-juice feeding stimulant concocted by ARS researchers in Beltsville, Maryland.  Both Invite and CideTrak allow farmers to use just one-tenth of the allowed rate of toxicant for pests in corn.

Environmentally friendly insecticides made from sugar esters projected to be on the market as early as the beginning of 2001.  AVA Chemical Ventures of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and ARS scientists at Kearneysville, West Virginia, recently applied for a patent on sugar esters -- the results of an ARS concept conceived some 10 years ago.  The compounds are lethal to mites and soft-bodied insects almost instantly after contact.  But they do little harm to insect predators, are completely nontoxic to animals and people, and quickly degrade into harmless sugars and fatty acids in the environment. 

Throughout 4 years of tests, the sugar esters have been at least as effective as conventional insecticides--and sometimes more so--against mites and aphids in apple orchards; psylla in pear orchards; whiteflies, thrips, and mites on vegetables; and whiteflies on cotton.  Pear psylla has become resistant to newer insecticides, and mites are developing resistance. 

Like insecticidal soaps, sugar esters kill insects by either suffocating them or by dissolving the waxy coating that protects them from drying environments.  Because of the way they work, insects are not expected to develop resistance any time soon.

A soil-dwelling fungus may be the answer to naturally controlling tiny fly maggots that pester sugar beet crops.  Nearly half the nation's 1.5 million-acre sugar beet crop is treated with granular insecticides to kill the maggot offspring of the fly Tetanopsis myopaeformis. Unchecked, the quarter- to half-inch-long maggots damage the beet's roots, which supply about 35 percent of the nation's sucrose.  The problem is, some insecticides now used can be toxic to sugar beet seedlings.  Also, use of the chemicals can harm nontarget insects in treated soil areas. As a safer alternative, ARS scientists at Beltsville, Maryland, and United States Environmental Protection Agency scientists are testing the use of Syngliocladium tetanopsis.  It's a species of fungus that infects and kills the maggots. 

In lab tests, more than 95 percent of newly hatched maggots died within 5 days of exposure to the fungus.  Larger, final-stage maggots lived for several weeks, but few survived.  Small-scale field studies indicate the fungus' cigar-shaped spores could be sprayed or soaked into soil or coated directly onto beet seeds.  In host-specificity studies, ladybugs, lacewings, Colorado potato beetles, and other nontarget insects survived exposure to the fungus, indicating that it's highly selective.  The scientists are now seeking a commercial company to help further explore the fungus' potential as a biological pesticide product.

Ruddy, a new sweetpotato with excellent baking quality and flavor, has been released by ARS.  It is the first red-skinned, orange-fleshed sweetpotato with resistance to multiple pests--insects, diseases and nematodes--to be released from the ARS breeding program.  Ruddy was developed by ARS scientists in Charleston, South Carolina, working with scientists at the South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station at Clemson University.  Medium-orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes like Ruddy contain very high levels of the key nutrient beta-carotene, which the human body converts into vitamin A.  One medium-sized sweetpotato provides more than the Recommended Dietary Allowance of vitamin A--as well as high levels of fiber, vitamin C, and folic acid.  Ruddy produces high yields and keeps well under long-term storage.  It is highly resistant to the larvae of several soil insects--the southern potato wireworm, tobacco wireworm, banded and striped cucumber beetles, elongate flea beetle, and the pale striped flea beetle.  Ruddy is more susceptible to white grub larvae than the insect-resistant cultivar Regal, but it is highly resistant to Fusarium wilt and to two races of the southern root-knot nematode.  Small quantities of foundation seed roots, sprouts, and cuttings of Ruddy will be available to researchers for the 2001 crop season.  By then, genetic material should be available from the Sweetpotato Clonal Repository at Griffin, Georgia.

A wasp that attacks a western plant bug may control the tarnished plant bug in the Mid-Atlantic States.  A new species of parasitic wasp discovered in Idaho attacking the western tarnished plant bug might help control a related pest species in the Mid-Atlantic States.  Much of the seed needed to grow many important domestic crops is produced in the northwestern United States. Each year, the western tarnished plant bug (WTPB) and its cousins suck the sap from flowers, young fruits, and seeds.  To prevent serious reductions in the quantity and quality of the seed crops, growers spend tens of millions of dollars to control this major pest. 

An ARS scientist in Newark, Delaware, cooperating with a University of Idaho scientist, discovered a previously unknown species of parasitic wasp attacking the WTPB in alfalfa seed fields in southwestern Idaho.  Over three WTPB generations in 1997 and 1998, the wasp killed 44 to 81 percent of the pests.  In ARS laboratory tests, the new wasp readily parasitized the tarnished plant bug, (TPB) a close relative of the WTPB.  The TPB is an important pest of many crops in the eastern half of the United States but has no significant natural enemies south of New York.

High maysin hybrid corn is a natural defense against corn earworms.  ARS scientists in Tifton, Georgia, have developed four lines of inbred sweet corn whose silks have a natural compound called maysin that can kill corn earworms.  Commercial crops of maysin-producing corn--still a few years off--could help farmers scale back their use of insecticides.  In Florida, for example, sweet corn growers sometimes spray up to 40 times per season to ensure the unblemished, worm-free ears that consumers require.  Nationwide, earworms cause $100 million in yield losses and increased insecticide costs.  And spraying, while effective, can endanger beneficial insects.  The maysin in the new lines, on the other hand, is a natural defense restricted to corn silks, where earworms start their feeding.  Maysin also is only active in the earworm's gut and isn't toxic to humans and other animals.

In forced-feeding trials, a maysin concentration of less than one-third of 1 percent of the silk's total fresh weight was enough to kill 50 percent of earworms that digested it.  In small-scale field trials this past summer, that sensitivity translated to very little ear damage in the maysin corn, versus a non-maysin control group that was not treated with insecticides.  The research team is now using a genetic approach called marker-assisted selection to speed development of high-maysin hybrids.  Their work is part of a cooperative research and development agreement that Novartis Seeds, Inc. renewed with ARS in August 2000.

Data contributed to support registration of minor uses of pesticides.  The availability of pest management chemicals to growers of minor crops is restricted because chemical companies do lack economic incentives to obtain the data necessary to register pesticides on small acreage crops.  The Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 has increased the problem of pesticide availability to minor crop growers.  ARS scientists, located in nine states and the District of Columbia, cooperate with state scientists through the IR-4 Minor Use Program to obtain efficacy, phytotoxicity, and residue data used to support minor use registrations. During FY 2000, ARS contributed data on 96 food, 249 ornamental, and 63 residue projects to the IR-4 Program.  The registrations resulting from these data will give growers the tools necessary to reduce pest losses and maintain yield and quality.

A tiny moth from Australia is the first insect sent to the United States for possible use in fighting Old World climbing fern, an invasive weed that threatens Florida's Everglades and other native ecosystems.  The fern Lygodium microphyllum blankets trees when it climbs up their trunks, creating massive, high walls of light-green vegetation.  It smothers lower growing plants by forming a tough, spongy mat.  The control agent, a moth, known as Cataclysta camptozonale, measures only one-half inch from wingtip to wingtip.  Its slender, wormlike larvae munch on fern leaves.  Scientists at ARS' Australian Biological Control Laboratory subjected the insect to rigorous tests with climbing fern and 14 other fern species, then sent more than 250 moths for other tests by ARS researchers in Gainesville, Florida, and their University of Florida colleagues.  If follow-up tests at the United States and Australian labs confirm the moth will not harm native or crop plants, scientists may seek federal and state permission to release it at fern-infested sites in Florida.

Two new insects may join the dozen existing biological control agents against leafy spurge, thanks to ARS research in Europe.  ARS scientists in France have discovered that a midge, Spurgia capitigena, lays eggs near the tip of leafy spurge stems.  Developing larvae cause the plant to form a swelling, or gall, and turn up its leaves.  The gall, which provides food for the midge larvae, reduces the weed's ability to produce seeds.  The scientists have obtained necessary permits and hope to release the midge early this summer.

A stem-boring beetle, Thamnurgus euphorbiae, is next in line on the spurge control team.  ARS scientists at the European Biological Control Laboratory and cooperators showed that the Italian beetle tunnels into spurge stems to lay their eggs.  The larvae that hatch chew into the stems, weakening the plant and reducing seed production.  The beetle has gained support from the Technical Advisory Group for Biological Control Agents of Weeds, an independent committee that counsels USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on release of a pest control agent.  If APHIS grants a permit, the beetle could be released in 2001.  Both insects have been tested for efficacy against spurge and to ensure they will not harm other vegetation.  Unlike existing agents, the new midge and beetle are expected to thrive in sandy, shady, or moist soils. That should give land managers new options for spurge management along streams and rivers.

ARS and Louisiana Tech University scientists have found that a fungus that grows on the sicklepod plant effectively controls kudzu.  Kudzu is a weed native to eastern Asia that has crept over more than 7 million acres in the United States.  In greenhouse and field studies, ARS scientists in Stoneville, Mississippi, found that the fungus Myrothecium verrucaria killed 100 percent of kudzu.  In ARS tests, the fungus effectively controlled the weed at different growth stages and under varying physical and environmental conditions.  The weed was originally promoted for erosion control and as inexpensive forage for livestock.  It is now present from Florida to New York, and westward to central Oklahoma and Texas, with heavy infestations in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi.  The weed resembles a giant beanstalk.  It spreads about 120,000 acres a year, and control costs increase by nearly $6 million annually.  Typical, but not highly efficient control methods include treating with herbicides and mowing.  Many consumers are reluctant to spray herbicides, and mowing doesn't kill the weed's underground root system. ARS' bioherbicide appears to invade the plant's roots.  The scientists plan to pursue a patent.

A natural protein from a soil fungus may help control broadleaf weeds like yellow star thistle, dandelion, and northern joint vetch.  ARS scientists at Beltsville, Maryland, discovered a protein, called Nep1, in secretions of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum that could control several invasive weeds.  Some Fusarium strains cause crop diseases.  But Nep1 plays no part in Fusarium's disease-causing machinery, the scientists showed.  Yet, when purified and sprayed onto weeds like dandelion, Nep I becomes a natural herbicide.  It quickly penetrates leaf openings (stomata) and starts a biochemical chain reaction, triggering the leaf's cells to commit mass suicide.  Three to 24 hours later, the leaf is dead, but not the weed's apical buds, stem, or root.  Sprayed as a natural herbicide, Nep I could help weaken a weed's dominance over crops, grasses, or other plants that normally can't compete.  Nep I mainly affects dicot (or broadleaf) weeds such as dandelion, yellow star thistle, sow thistle, and northern joint vetch. Though not intended for dicot plants like cotton, the scientists speculate Nep I could be used as a natural defoliant for easier harvesting of lint fiber. Since Nep1 is made of amino acids -- a basic building block of proteins -- so it should be innocuous to humans and animals and also break down in the environment.

Environmentally sound methods developed for eradication of illicit narcotic coca crop.  The eradication of illicit narcotic crops, especially coca, is surprisingly elusive.  Manual techniques are expensive and potentially dangerous for field personnel, and most herbicides have been proven to be either ineffective or environmentally unacceptable or both.  ARS scientists at Beltsville, Maryland, have conducted research for about fifteen years to develop better strategies for controlling what has become a law enforcement, social welfare, and foreign policy conundrum for the United States Government.  In cooperation with the Department of State and the Government of Colombia, techniques now allow for the aerial application of the environmentally benign herbicide glyphosate, in conjunction with surfactants, in coca growing regions of Colombia.  Reductions of up to 80 percent coca in the field have been verified by ground observation teams.

Integration of Component Technologies into IPM Systems and Development of Areawide Suppression Programs

An organic mulch made from a cover crop called hairy vetch thwarts hungry Colorado potato beetles in vegetable crops.  The Colorado potato beetle costs United States potato, tomato, and eggplant growers about $150 million annually in losses and insecticide-related costs.  ARS scientists at Beltsville, Maryland, have found that hairy vetch impedes beetle movement, thereby lessening their damage.  The pest is notorious for its ability to develop resistance to insecticides.  In the study, beetle establishment occurred at a lower rate on tomatoes transplanted into hairy vetch mulch than on those transplanted into black plastic mulch. Yields of staked fresh-market tomatoes grown in hairy vetch mulch were comparable to control plots treated with insecticides. Noninsecticidal methods of control could be useful components of an integrated pest management strategy if they can reduce pesticide inputs, thus slowing the rate at which resistance develops.