Agriculture Commons^™

A Comparison Of Candidate Banker Plants For Management Of Pests In Lettuce, Brian N. Hogg, Erik H. Nelson, Kent M. Daane

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

Agricultural systems are often lacking in resources for natural enemies. Providing alternative prey can help natural enemies persist through periods of low pest abundance, although this approach has been rarely commercially implemented in open field crops. In this study, we tested the potential of eight plant species to provide alternative prey to natural enemies in lettuce fields over a 2-yr period. Results showed that the tested plants would not act as sources of the lettuce aphid Nasonovia ribisnigri Mosley (Hemiptera: Aphididae), the primary lettuce pest. Of the banker plants tested, barley contained high numbers of non-lettuce aphids and appeared to …