Re: organic insect control

Valerie Berton (vberton@wam.umd.edu)
Mon, 8 Jul 1996 13:01:53 -0400 (EDT)

The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program has
funded a project in Maine looking at environmentally safe ways to manage
Colorado potato beetles. While still incomplete, project results so far
find that introducing beneficial stinkbugs and microbial pest controls
(Beauveria bassiana and Bacillus thuringiensis) reduces emergence of beetle
adults by 65 percent.

Unfortunately, it's not a solution for you this year, because the stinkbug
and one of the microbial pest controls are not commercially available yet.
Additionally, the beneficials take some time to get established. But this
could be a solution for you down the road.

For more information about the project, you can contact SARE's Northeast
Office, msimpson@moose.uvm.edu. Reference project LNE93-036/ANE 93-18. Good
luck.

Valerie Berton
SARE Communications Specialist
0322 Symons Hall, Zip 5565
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
(301) 405-3186
(301) 314-7373 (fax)