Environmentally-Friendly Controls for Peach Tree Pests.

0 Comments | M2 Presswire, March, 2008

M2 PRESSWIRE-7 March 2008-USDA: Environmentally-Friendly Controls for Peach Tree Pests(C)1994-2008 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:07032008

Peach growers combat several insects that harm their crop, usually using chemical pesticides to do so. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in the Southeastern Fruit and Tree Nut Research Laboratory in Byron, Ga., are seeking environmentally friendly alternatives.

ARS entomologists David Shapiro-Ilan and Ted Cottrell, along with colleagues at the University of Florida and the University of Georgia, are evaluating two tiny, soil-dwelling nematodes as possible biological controls. They were used to thwart damage caused by the plum curculio weevil (Conotrachelus nenuphar), and two clear-winged moths,...