Diamondback Moth Research Paper

Plutella xylostella (L.), the diamondback moth (DBM), is a serious pest of crucifers and has been reported from all US states. The most affected vegetable crops in the United States are cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, collard, mustard, radish, and turnip and major damage to the crops is caused by larval feeding. DBM has been known to travel long distances (Chapman et al., 2002). The annual total estimated cost for DBM management is 4 to 5 billion dollars globally and 150 to 200 million dollars in the United States (Zalucki et al., 2012). Despite many advances, DBM has retained its status as the most destructive member of the different insect pest complexes that attack crucifer crops in various parts of the world and has shown the substantial

Despite the great efforts to develop an integrated approach to manage DBM, the vast majority of Brassica crops are treated specially with insecticides (Grzywacz et al., 2010). Such practices promote the selection for insecticide resistance, destroy natural enemies, and contaminate the environment. DBM continues to be a major pest due to its ability to rapidly develop resistance to almost all insecticides used to control it. The populations of DBM have developed physiological resistance to at least 82 active ingredients (http://www.pesticideresistance.org/). In the past DBM control has relied heavily upon chemical insecticides that not only causes the resistance but also kill the natural enemies that lead the outbreak of the DBM. However, the development of resistance and the environmental impacts of the chemicals have stimulated again the search for alternative control methods, mainly based on manipulation of natural

D. insulare and related species occur naturally throughout much of the United States and in other cabbage-growing regions of the world (Muckenfuss et al., 1992; Idris & Grafius, 1993 1992). In the United State, on average, D. insulare parasitize 50-80% of DBM larvae (Hutchison et al, 2004) and in Texas 98% parasitism in the field was reported (Ligaspi et al., 200). We propose to implement an inundative augmentative classical biological control program with mass rearing and release of larval and egg parasitoid against the DBM in the