A REALISTIC APPROACH TO REDUCE COST AND IMPROVE EFFECTIVEN NESS OF GYPSY MOTH PARASITES IN IPM

LOSSES RESULTING FROM GYPSY MOTH IN THE NORTHEAST IN 1981 ALONE WERE $764,000.000. THIS PEST IS DISPERSING TO 500,000 ACRES PER YEAR INTO AREAS OF ITS PERFERRED FOOD, THE MID- ATLANTIC STATES. MORE THAN TEN ISOLATED INFESTATIONS HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING CALIFORNIA, ORGON, AND WASHINGTON. PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS IN 1884 WITH A NEWLY IMPORTED PARAISTE, COSTESIA MELANOSCELA. KOREAN STRAIN (HYIMENOPTERA: BRACONIDAE), DEMONSTRATED EXTREMELY HIGH RATES OF PARASITISM OF GYPSY MOTH LARVAE. THIS PARASITE IS IDEALLY SUITED FOR IPM PROGRAMS BECAUSE OF ITS HOST SPECIFICITY, SYNERGISTIC RESPONSE WITH BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS, OVERWINTERING POTENTIAL, AND ITS PROTECTIVE SSILKEN 'HALO' SURROUNDING THE OVERWINTERING COCOON. THE LIMITING FACTORS FOR THE USE OF C. MELANOSCELA ARE HIGH PRODUCTION COSTS AND LACK OF RELEASE RATE PRESCRIPTIONS. THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS PROPOSAL ARE TO REDUCE PRODUCTION CO COSTS BY TESTING AND SELECTING SUPERIOR COMBINATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING: PARASITE-HOST DENSITY, HOST AND PARASITE AGE, ANDENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS. PRESCRIPTIONS FOR PARASITE R RELEASE RATES ARE DEVELOPED FROM VARIABLE PARASITE: HOST DENSITY EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED IN OUTDOOR INSECTARIES AND FORESTED WOODLOTS.