WASHINGTON - American
farmers are turning out to be the
winners in an ongoing “chess”
match of wasps against alfalfa
weevils, according to a U.S.
Department of Agriculture of
ficial.
“The alfalfa weevil is extremely
destructive to alfalfa crops. Each
year farmers spend hundreds of
millions of dollars to control these
insects with chemical pesticides,”
says Bert W. Hawkins, ad
ministrator of USDA’s Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service.
“But an APHIS program aimed at
combatting the weevils with
natural enemies tiny parasitic
wasps impor* ?d from Europe and
Asia is beginning to check
weevil numbers and to reduce the
amount of costly chemicals it takes
to control them.”
Hawkins uses chess terminology
to describe the high-stakes match
between the weevils and the
wasps. “A chess match is similar
to a match between a biological
control agent and a target pest,”
he says. “In the same way a chess
player reduces an opponent’s
strength piece by piece, a
beneficial insect gradually reduces
a target pest’s numbers until it no
longer does economically
significant damage.”
The idea of controlling alfalfa
weevils with natural enemies was
first developed by scientists of
USDA’s Agricultural Research
Service, Hawkins says. In the mid
-1950’5, ARS researchers identified
several species of wasps in Europe
and Asia that parasitized other
insects to reproduce. The females
of the parasitic wasps deposit their
eggs inside another insect’s body.
When the eggs hatch, the host
insect literally is eaten alive by the
wasp larvae. All of these parasitic
extend to you and your
families best wishes for a
“Merry Christmas” and a
“Happy New Year”.
to
BEACON
USDA Makes Final Move To ‘Checkmate’ Alfalfa Weevil
Putting the Alfalfa Weevil in Check: the Three Chess Boards
wasp species are stingless and
harmless to humans and animals.
“ARS made the first moves to
put the alfalfa weevils in check in
1959,” says Hawkins, “when
researchers established some of
these parasitic wasp species in 11
northeastern and mid-Atlantic
states, expecting they would
parasitize the weevils. Placing the
wasps in the northeastern and mid-
Atlantic regions formed the first of
three ‘chess boards,’ on which the
match against the alfalfa weevil is
fought. The boards now cover the
lower 48 states.”
The wasps on the first chess
board were so successful in
reducing weevil numbers, says
Hawkins, that by 1980, spraying of
chemical insecticides to control
the weevil in the 11 states dropped
73 percent, saving alfalfa
producers an average of $8 million
a year in pesticide and application
costs. USDA spent only $1 million
on the program over the 21-year
period. Some states reported that
the wasps alone provided virtually
100 percent protection from the
weevil.
“In 1980, APHIS took over from
ARS as chess master, and set up a
second board covering 25 states
further west,” says Hawkins.
Employees of the Cooperative
Extension Service and state
departments of agriculture
cooperated with APHIS in the
expanded match. Since 1981, about
15 million parasitic wasps have
been released at thousands of
locations in the 25 states.
“At this moment, no further
releases seem necessary on this
second board,” Hawkins says. “All
the pieces seem to be in place to
put the alfalfa weevil in check.”
The wasps on the second board
will not reach maximum numbers
for six to 10 years, but a
preliminary review by USDA’s
Economic Research Service in
dicates the wasps are already
reducing the numbers of pesticide
applications needed to control the
weevils.
“Placing weevils on the second
board of 25 states cost us about a
Producers who participate in the
1987 commodity programs will not
be allowed to plant nonprogram
crops on their permitted program
crop acreage or earn deficiency
payments on those acres, ac
cording to Donald E. Lutz,
Chairman of the Berks County
Agricultural Stabilization and
Conservation Committee.
In 1986, farm program par
ticipants could plant nonprogram
Beacon Feeds of York and your
half million dollars per year,” says
Hawkins, “so the savings for
farmers in these states far out
weigh the cost of the program.”
APHIS is now in the process of
setting up the third and last game
board in its continuing match
against the weevil, says Hawkms.
The third board rovers the 12
Commodity Program Change Announced
crops on their permitted acreage if
planting, or a contract to plant
occurred before Feb. 26,1986.
However, under the 1987
program provision, producers who
plant at least 50 percent of their
permitted acres to a program
crop, and devote the remaining
permitted acreage to conservation
uses, will be eligible to receive
deficiency payments on 92 percent
of the permitted acreage. This is
Beacon Dealers
Lancaster Farming Saturday, December 20,1986-019
western-most states of the lower
48. Releases of wasps, which began
last year in the area of third board,
are scheduled for 545 sites across
the region. In 1987 alone, more
than 2 million adult wasps will be
released. The board will be
completely set up by 1990.
known as the 50/92 program, Lutz
said.
Lutz said the 1987 commodity
programs also prohibit the
production of alternate crops on
Acreage Conservation Reserve
land.
Producers who comply with the
1987 farm programs will be eligible
for deficiency payments, price
support loans and land diversion
payments for feed grain crops.
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1979)