{"id":1966,"date":"2022-12-01T08:44:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T08:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/?p=1966"},"modified":"2023-02-28T15:20:04","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T15:20:04","slug":"flower-strips-help-wasps-control-orchard-pests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/flower-strips-help-wasps-control-orchard-pests\/","title":{"rendered":"Flower strips help wasps control orchard pests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Flower strips between apple tree rows could help increase the success of natural enemies of the rosy apple aphid Dysaphis plantaginea<\/em>, controlling populations of the orchard pest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study in Belgium<\/a> tested the effectiveness of releases of two parasitoid wasps known to target the aphid – Aphidius matricariae<\/em> and Ephedrus cerasicola<\/em> \u2013 in an experimental orchard, both with and without the presence of flower strips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wasps were released early in the growing season \u2013 with such timing essential to prevent damaging aphid population explosions later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 33% fewer aphids were found where the flower strips were present, suggesting that the wasps and other naturally-occurring species were able to act as a more successful pest control<\/a> \u2013 a service of great value to growers in an age of fewer available pesticides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distance matters, flowers help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers also found that the distance of parasitoid release points from trees infested with aphids affected the efficacy of the control method, but that the flower strips helped compensate for this. They suggested that the strips both aided the wasps\u2019 movements and provided an alternative food source to keep them in the area at a time when there were relatively few aphids present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo maximize the efficiency of this strategy, and to provide early food sources to natural enemies, we recommend that early bloom annual and perennial plants flower mixes are sown in the alleyway of apple orchards,\u201d the authors said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs distance to release point had a strong effect on aphid control, we also suggest parasitoid releases to be done at least one row out of two, and one tree out of two on each row.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read the full study in Annals of Applied Biology<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For wasps attacking the rosy apple aphid, help could be at hand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[50,176,98,96,202,95,43,73,201,203,200,103,100,99,54,199,102],"other-categories":[],"class_list":["post-1966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainable-pest-control","tag-agriculture","tag-agro-ecology","tag-aphids","tag-biocontrol","tag-biodiversity","tag-biological-control","tag-farming","tag-farming-future-food","tag-flower-strips","tag-fruit-growing","tag-insect-pests","tag-natural-enemies","tag-orchards","tag-pest-control","tag-research","tag-rosy-apple-aphid","tag-top-fruit"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1966"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2732,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966\/revisions\/2732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1966"},{"taxonomy":"other-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/other-categories?post=1966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}