Black vine weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus is a common insect pest of over 150 plant species that grown in the greenhouses and nurseries. Some of the plant species damaged by black vine weevils include Azalea, Cyclamen, Euonymus, Fuxia, Rosa, Rhododendron and Taxus. Grubs (Larvae) of these weevils generally girdle the main stem, and feed and damage roots leading to nutrient deficiencies. Adults feed on leaves and flowers by notching their edges thus reducing aesthetic value of plants.
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Kill leafminers (Liriomyza spp.) with Entomopathogenic Nematodes /
Leafminers (Liriomyza spp.) are considered as economically important polyphagous pests of many indoor vegetable crops and flowering plants.
Vegetable host crops included beans, beet, carrots, celery, cucumbers, eggplants, lettuce, melons, onions, peas, peppers, potatoes, squash and tomatoes.
Flowering host plants included ageratum, aster, calendula, chrysanthemum, dahlia, gerbera, gypsophila, marigold, petunia, snapdragon, and zinnia.
Leafminer maggots generally feed on leaf parenchyma tissues by tunneling/mining between the upper and lower epidermal leaf surfaces.
Adults generally feed on sap exuding from the punctures caused by maggots during mining.
Infested leaves appear stippled due to the punctures made by leafminers while feeding, mining and oviposition especially at the leaf tip and along the leaf margins.
Widespread mining and stippling on the leaves generally decreases the level of photosynthesis in the plant leading towards the premature leaf drop reducing the amount of shade, which in turn causes sun scalding of fruits.
Injuries caused by maggots on the foliage also allow entry of bacterial and fungal disease causing pathogens.
Life cycle of leafminers contains four stages including egg, maggot, pupa and adult.
Life cycle can be completed within 15-21 days depending upon the host and temperature.
Adult females lay eggs in leaf tissues, eggs hatch within 2-3 days into maggots, hatched maggots starts feeding immediately and become mature within 3-4 days. Mature larvae eventually cut through the leaf epidermis and move to the soil for pupation and adults emerge within 3 weeks of pupation in the summer.
Although, chemical insecticides are generally used to protect foliage from injury caused by leafminers, but development of insecticide resistance among leafminer populations is a major problem.
Insecticides also are highly disruptive to naturally occurring biological control agents, particularly parasitoids.
Therefore, biological control agents including Bacillus thuringiensis var. thuringiensis (Bt), parasitic wasps (Diglyphus begina, D. intermedius, D. pulchripes and Chrysocharis parksi) and entomopathogenic nematodes (Heterorhabditis spp, Steinernema carpocapase and S. feltiae) have been considered as alternatives to chemical pesticides.
For successful control of leafminers, entomopathogenic nematodes can be easily applied in water suspension as spray application on plant foliage.
Entomopathogenice nematodes including S. carpocapase and S. feltiae when applied at the rate of 5.3 X 108 nematodes/ha can cause over 64% mortality of leafminers but need at least 92% relative humidity.
How Entomopathogenic Nematodes kill leafminers
When the infective juveniles are applied as spray to plant foliage, they enter the leaf mines through the leaf miner feeding punctures or exit holes made by the adults.
Once inside the mine the nematodes swim to find a leafminer maggot, nematodes then penetrate into the maggot body cavity via natural openings such as mouth, anus and spiracles.
Infective juveniles of Heterorhabditis also enter through the intersegmental members of the larval cuticle.
Once in the body cavity, infective juveniles release symbiotic bacteria (Xenorhabdus spp. for Steinernematidae and Photorhabdus spp. for Heterorhabditidae) from their gut in the maggot blood.
In the blood, multiplying nematode-bacterium complex causes septicemia and kills maggots usually within 48 h after infection.
For more information on the interaction between entomopathogenic nematodes and leafminers, please read following research and extension publications.
Hara, A.H., Kaya, H.K., Gaugler, R., Lebeck, L.M. and Mello, C.L. 1993. Entomopathogenic nematodes for biological control of the leafminer, Liriomyza trifolii (Dipt.: Agromyzidae). Entomophaga 38, 359-369.
Head, J. and Walters, K.F.A. 2003. Augmentation biological control utilising the entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema feltiae, against the South American Leafminer, Liriomyza huidobrensis. Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Biological Control, (Hawaii, USA, 13-18 January 2002). USDA Forest Service, FHTET-03-05, 136-140.
Olthof, T.H.A. and Broadbent, A.B. 1992. Evaluation of steinernematid nematodes for control of a leafminer, Liriomyza trifolii, in greenhouse chrysanthemums. Journal of Nematology 24, 612.
Tong-Xian Liu, Le Kang, K.M.Heinz, J.Trumble. 2008. Biological control of Liriomyza leafminers: progress and perspective. CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources, 2009, 4, No. 004, 16 pp.
Williams, E.C. and Walters, K.F.A. 1994. Nematode control of leafminers: Efficacy, temperature and timing. Brighton Crop Protection Conference - Pests and Disease. 1079-1084.
Williams, E.C. and MacDonald, O.C., 1995. Critical factors required by the nematode Steinernema feltiae for the control of the leafminers Liriomyza huidobrensis, Liriomyza bryoniae and Chromatomyia syngenesiae. Annals of Applied Biology. 127, 329-341.
Williams, E.C. and Walters, K.F.A. 2000. Foliar application of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema feltiae against leafminers on vegetables. Biocontrol Science and Technology 10, 61-70.
Symbiotic bacterial genus, Photorhabdus /
known species of symbiotic bacterial genus Photorhabdus associated with a nematode genus Heterorhabditis. Identification based on colony morphology and molecular techniques
- Photorhabdus luminescens (Thomas and Poinar 1979) Boemare et al. 1993
- P. temperata
- P. luminescens subsp. luminescens subsp. nov., Fischer-Le Saux, Viallard, Brunel, Normand & Boemare, 1999
- P. luminescens subsp. akhurstii subsp. nov., Fischer-Le Saux, Viallard, Brunel, Normand & Boemare, 1999
- P. luminescens subsp. kayaii subsp. nov., Hazir, Stackebrandt, Lang, Schumann, Ehlers & Keskin, 2004
- P. luminescens subsp. laumondii subsp. nov., Fischer-Le Saux, Viallard, Brunel, Normand & Boemare, 1999
- P.luminescens subsp. sonorensis, Orozco, Hill & Stock, 2013
- P. temperata sp. nov., Fischer-Le Saux, Viallard, Brunel, Normand & Boemare, 1999
- P. temperata subsp. temperata subsp. nov., Fischer-Le Saux, Viallard, Brunel, Normand & Boemare, 1999
- P. luminescens subsp. thracensis subsp. nov., Hazir, Stackebrandt, Lang, Schumann, Ehlers & Keskin, 2004
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