| The soil-dwelling larvae of click beetles within the genus Agriotes, commonly called wireworms, inflict serious damage in potatoes, maize and other crops. As the control of wireworms by conventional insecticides is strongly restricted, alternative means for controlling these pests are urgently needed.
The current project directly addresses this need and its aims are:
1. To validate and improve the efficiency of the available and new measures against the wireworm by taking into account the biology of the crop pest.
2. Optimization of the newly developed regulation measures towards their practical use
3. Knowledge transfer and implementation of the regulation strategies for practical farming
The project is divided into four project modules (M1-4) with modules 1, 2 and 3 focusing on the improvement of the application of entomopathogenic fungi (EF) to control wireworms, the development of a suite of control measures in potato and maize, respectively.
M1 addresses the variability of Agriotes species and populations in their susceptibility to different strains of Metarhizium brunneum, the evaluation and improvement of new carrier substrates and application techniques for fungal spores and the evaluation of hydrogels to improve the efficacy of EF.
M2 focusses on the evaluation of tillage measures and trap crop mixtures in combination with the targeted use of EF in potato, the assessment of wireworm density reduction throughout a multiple year regulation strategy in crop rotation, repellent measures for female click beetles to reduce egg deposition in crop fields and the evaluation of soil cultivation techniques for the reduction of larvae.
M3 seeks to test new trap crop mixtures for maize production in eastern Austria, the effect of soybean for wireworm reduction as a preceding crop to maize and the repellent effects of oil seeds and their practical application in maize.
M 4 deals with the evaluation of the control measures for practical farming and their implementation as well as knowledge transfer. Here the scientists will closely collaborate with agricultural extension workers and farmers to ensure that the novel regulation strategies will be made available to farmers across Austria. |