UOG professor receives grant to control sweet potato weevil

The warm humid conditions of the tropics make it tough for farmers to keep their crops pest free. For sweet potato growers in Micronesia, the sweet potato weevil seems to defy efforts to control its population. Some farmers have been applying toxic pesticides in an effort to control the weevils but they have not been successful. Since the grubs bore inside the tubers, the chemicals do not affect the immature stages. The sweet potato weevil is a year round pest under warm conditions and even small populations can cause severe damage to the tubers.

University of Guam scientist Dr. Gadi V.P. Reddy has received a $75,000 Conservation Innovation Grant from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to help growers in the region using an integrated control strategy that will control the weevils and eliminate the use of toxic pesticides.

Reddy is applying Integrated Pest Management techniques to reduce the numbers of weevils in farmer’s fields. He has been developing effective trapping methods that utilize scents attractive to weevils (pheromones) and lethal fungi to control weevil populations. Before the weevils can say, “There’s a fungus among us,” they are infected with a fungus that can seriously disable and eventually kill them. These integrated control tactics are environmentally friendly and target a specific insect: the sweet potato weevil, Cylas formicarius.

This NRCS grant will fund Reddy’s research into developing efficient pheromone traps for catching weevils that will contain Petri dishes with fungal spores (Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae). The weevils that visit the traps will be infected with the fungus and in turn infect the weevils in the fields.

“The IPM research conducted by Dr. Reddy and his team at the Western Pacific Tropical Research Center positively impacts sustainable agriculture in the region and beyond,” says Greg Wiecko, WPTRC associate director.

Reddy is a chemical ecologist and entomologist with over 25 years of experience in entomological research and has a strong background in Integrated Pest Management, biocontrol, and behavioral, and chemical ecology. He serves as subject editor for the journals, Environmental Entomology and Annals of the Entomological Society of America and as Associate Editor for Florida Entomologist. He is also co-author of the book Biological Control of Tropical Weeds using Arthropods, which was recently published by Cambridge University Press.[I] (UOG)[/I]