Development of grower applicable Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee incubation protocols to extend interruption duration for improved pollination management that improves seed yield and bee health

The purpose of this proposal is to improve the protocols of incubation interruption of Alfalfa Leafcutting Bees (ALBs) used in the managed pollination of alfalfa seed crop. An efficient alfalfa pollination management program coordinates bee release with bloom onset while minimizing residual pesticide hazard. Our customer feedback suggests that this approach may increase yield up to 100% for growers while contributing to better bee health and productivity.Once ALB incubation is initiated, growers have a short window to interrupt the incubation without significant bee mortality. Incorrect incubation interruption adversely affects bee longevity and vigor, as well as crop yields.Our research seeks to extrapolate lab proven research on extended incubation interruption to work for a range of lower precision incubators in the field. Our goal is to develop field applicable protocols to deliver the incubation precision and flexibility growers need to respond to changing environmental conditions and release bees in multiple batches which has been observed by agronomists to increase yield.This research will form the backbone of a decision support system through which growers will have access to real-time ALB life-cycle management tools in response to their input of changing field conditions. Through a smartphone application, they will be able to quickly ascertain the optimal duration and conditions to interrupt incubation and stage bee release. This will help growers better manage risks to bee health and crop yield.