Pekarcik Adrian Joseph, Taylor Christopher G, Raudenbush Amy Lynn, Tilmon Kelley Jean
USDA-Agricultural Research Service, North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory, Brookings, SD, USA.
Department of Entomology, Ohio State University, Wooster, OH, USA.
Pest Manag Sci. 2025 Aug;81(8):4894-4903. doi: 10.1002/ps.8851. Epub 2025 Apr 23.
The Asiatic garden beetle, Maladera formosae, emerged as a significant early season pest of field corn in the Great Lakes region beginning in the mid-2000s. Management tools used broadly for annual white grub species, like seed- and soil-applied insecticides, are ineffective against or have not been evaluated specifically for M. formosae. Biological control, including entomopathogenic nematodes, is successful against M. formosae in turf systems. The goals of this study were to (i) isolate and identify nematode species from agricultural fields in northern Ohio with field histories of M. formosae, and (ii) evaluate their ability to infect M. formosae grubs in greenhouse and field trials.
We isolated two naturally occurring entomopathogenic nematode species from the field, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora and Steinernema carpocapsae, in addition to a free-living Pristionchus sp. nematode. The entomopathogen communities sampled varied among field sites and were not correlated with soil physical properties or M. formosae. We confirmed that all three nematodes can infect and kill M. formosae grubs. In a greenhouse study, H. bacteriophora and H. bacteriophora + Pristionchus sp. killed significantly more grubs than the water control. In an outdoor microcosm study, nematodes successfully overwintered and subsequently killed M. formosae grubs at similar rates, regardless of treatment or inoculation rate.
These findings indicate that insect-killing nematodes are prevalent in corn-soybean systems with M. formosae and have the potential to be an effective tool for the management of M. formosae in field cropping systems in the Great Lakes region. © 2025 The Author(s). Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.
亚洲丽金龟（Maladera formosae）自21世纪中叶开始，成为五大湖地区玉米田早期的一种重要害虫。广泛用于防治一年生蛴螬类害虫的管理工具，如种子处理和土壤施用杀虫剂，对亚洲丽金龟无效或未针对其进行专门评估。包括昆虫病原线虫在内的生物防治方法，在草坪系统中对亚洲丽金龟防治成功。本研究的目标是：（i）从俄亥俄州北部有亚洲丽金龟发生历史的农田中分离并鉴定线虫种类；（ii）在温室和田间试验中评估它们感染亚洲丽金龟蛴螬的能力。
除了一种自由生活的原小杆线虫（Pristionchus sp.）外，我们从田间分离出两种自然存在的昆虫病原线虫，分别是嗜菌异小杆线虫（Heterorhabditis bacteriophora）和苹果蠹蛾线虫（Steinernema carpocapsae）。不同田间地点采集的昆虫病原线虫群落存在差异，且与土壤物理性质或亚洲丽金龟无关。我们证实这三种线虫都能感染并杀死亚洲丽金龟蛴螬。在温室研究中，嗜菌异小杆线虫以及嗜菌异小杆线虫与原小杆线虫混合组杀死的蛴螬数量显著多于水对照组。在室外微观试验中，无论处理方式或接种率如何，线虫都成功越冬，并随后以相似的速率杀死亚洲丽金龟蛴螬。
这些发现表明，在有亚洲丽金龟的玉米 - 大豆系统中，杀昆虫线虫普遍存在，并且有可能成为五大湖地区大田作物系统中管理亚洲丽金龟的有效工具。© 2025作者。《害虫管理科学》由约翰·威利父子有限公司代表化学工业协会出版。
