03/30/06 Wanted: Live cereal leaf beetles

03/30/06 Wanted: Live cereal leaf beetles

Washington Ag March 30, 2006 Washington State University Extension is asking farmers for help in finding some live adult cereal leaf beetles. The beetle is found in many eastern Washington counties and some in western Washington and both the adult and larval stages feed on most cereal and grass crops and frequently cause economic damage. WSU Spokane County Extension educator Diana Roberts is collecting live, adult beetles from farm fields as part of a biocontrol project. In a previous interview she explained that the adult cereal leaf beetles will be sent to a lab in Colorado where they lay eggs that are then parasitized by wasps. Roberts: "They then send those parasitized eggs back to us overnight in coolers. We take them out to the field and the parasitic wasp hatches out of the cereal leaf beetle egg and flies out into the field and we hope finds lots more cereal leaf beetle eggs to parasitize." WSU personnel will go to farms to collect the beetles so if you have an infestation call Diana at 509-477-2167, or Andy McGuire at WSU Grant County Extension at 509-754-2022, extension 413. I'm Bob Hoff.
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