Biological control of viburnum leaf beetle

The overall goal of this project was to further evaluate field efficacy of several biological control agents identified by us in earlier projects as having potential for biological control of viburnum leaf beetle, a recently introduced pest in the U.S. Although the pest can be controlled effectively with insecticides, biological control would be preferable for long-term management and for limiting pest damage to susceptible plants in naturalized settings. The specific objectives of this study were to test the efficacy of in open-field studies to determine if they can control the pest under these more rigorous, “real world” conditions. The evaluation of nematodes was inconclusive, and it was not possible to complete the evaluation of predators on uncaged plan because of very unusual weather conditions in 2002. The evaluations will be repeated in 2003