 Welcome, everybody. I'm Esther McGannis, the NDSU Extension Horticulturist. So welcome to our December edition of our NDSU Extension high-tunnel webinar. Our high-tunnel webinar series was created to address the challenges, the unique challenges that high-tunnel producers face in the Northern Great Plains. Now, since our last webinar, we have created a new website, and that website's going to go live either today or tomorrow. The website will list all of our upcoming webinars and links to our recordings. So last month we had Dr. Sally Miller, and her recording will then be available on that website. So I will send out the website URL later today or first thing tomorrow morning. But I am delighted to introduce our speaker for today, Dr. Luis Kenyos. Dr. Kenyos is an associate professor from the Ohio State University. He oversees a research lab and has an extension appointment. And the long-term goals of his research lab are to understand the ecology of major insect pest groups of ornamentals and vegetables produced in controlled environments and to develop ecologically-based management practices that will reduce our dependence on pesticides and have fewer adverse effects on the environment. So Dr. Kenyos will be speaking on managing thrips and aphids on crops grown in high tunnels. We will encourage people to hold their questions until the end, unless you have a quick clarification, but you're free to type in the chat box at any time. So go ahead and get used to using the chat box. Now please note that we will dedicate our April webinar to the subject of spider mites. Our NDSU extension entomologist, Janet Cunodal, will be presenting on that topic. Therefore, we will not be addressing spider mites in this particular webinar. All right. Well, thank you very much, Dr. Kenyos, and I will turn it over to you. Thank you very much, sir. It's a pleasure to be here and it's a pleasure to collaborate with the team. I know Janet as well. We've collaborated in our projects and teams together. And thank you, Esther, for the invitation and thank you all for being here. I know we were talking earlier before getting everything set up that it seems like we have about the same amount of snow in each of our states, which is rather interesting. Yes, so I'm happy to be here. And today, as I pointed out, I will be talking about managing trips and if it's on crops grown in high tunnels. I'll specify that for the purpose of the talk, then high tunnels, obviously, it's kind of funny in between growing crops in greenhouses and in the field. Many of the insecticides that I will be presenting pertain more to the use in greenhouses. But again, if you have any questions about anything that I present here, then by all means write it in the chat box or wait until the end where we will have plenty of time to address questions. So a little bit about the outline of what I will present today. First, I will discuss briefly what rotations are and the importance of mode of action because the reality is to manage some of these crops and we do have as one of the components of an integrated pest management is the use of insecticides. And so we need to know the details about how to manage those properly. Then I'll go into our two major topics, which would be, of course, talking about trips. A little bit about their biology and a few things that we've learned through research in the past few years and how that leads us to management recommendations in the use of both insecticides and the use of biological control. There will be other tactics that pertain to integrated pest management that I will also be mentioning during that segment. And then the second group of insects we will discuss is about aphids. Again, a little bit about their biology and life cycle and how that impacts or management using both insecticides and using biological control. So first, a little bit of biology 101. Of course, we know that insecticides affect the nervous system of the insects. And here, I'll just reference a little bit of how those insecticides impact some groups because I'll be referring a lot to mode of action. And mode of action refers to the way an insecticide affects the physiology of the insect. And if we think about, okay, so how the brain communicates with the muscles in the body of an insect, basically we have a sequence of cells of neurons in this case that move an electric signal from the brain to activate the muscle. So basically the insecticides or go with the insecticide is to block that signal. And so we have here what we call the pre-synaptic cell where the signal originates. It moves through the cell. Then there is some chemical communication between one neuron to the next called the post-synaptic cell. And then that's the normal way that the signal travels. So our intention with insecticide is to disrupt that. So for example, pyrethroids, they do block the sodium channels. And what they do is impact the signal at the pre-synaptic cell. So we cut that. And when we do that, then of course the result is that the insect begins to shake and they have uncontrolled muscle movements and eventually we cause death. Something similar happens if we block the sodium channels but on the post-synaptic cell. And compounds like spinosal, which is one of the key compounds that is useful to control trips, has that ability and results in the same scenario. Again, you block that signal, then the muscles cannot be moved or they shake before the insect dies. Some compounds like nicotine and nicotine acetylcholine receptors will block also some of these same pathways. And things like organophosphates and carbamates, then they will affect that chemical communication between the two cells. Again, the point is to block that signal, but the way we do it and where these centers then has an effect on the insects. And that's what we will talk when I referred to mode of action. Okay, so where do we find this information about mode of actions for all the different chemistries? All the industries that produce chemicals for control of pests, they have led in the organization of a group that has a lot of input from not just only the industry, but also from academia and from the government in terms of understanding the chemical nature of these compounds. And this group is called the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee. The site is here, if you are ever curious about this, it's called IRAC Online. And basically every year, then representatives from all these different industries get together and then decide based on the chemical properties of a molecule where these molecules fit into this mode of action list. And you will see later why that is important, but for example, well-known molecules as carbamates and organophosphates belong to groups 1A, 1B. And the key, I guess, aspect of this is that there will be an area where we will see the active ingredients. And pretty much any active ingredient that is on the market will be found on this list. So you can, regardless of the trademark name of the product, then you can go search for the active ingredient which is usually found on the labels and then find where these belong in terms of this mode of action group. Now, how do we use that to really help us design a way to control these insects? Well, remember that we will, in a moment, I will present you with some list of examples of rotations. And I'll come back to what the rotation is, but basically it's a selection, a list of chemicals that we will have as recommendations to control a particular insect. And then once we spray a couple of times one molecule, then we're supposed to change to another one. And I'll explain why we need to do that. But these are a few examples. The ones that are, all of these are the mode of action groups. I didn't include everything, but I included a few trademark names, especially the ones marking blue, those that are listed as available for control of thrips. So you can see that not every mode of action group has a compound that is active for that particular insect group. So that's where the first pieces of information about, okay, so what to use and where do we find this list becomes really useful and important. So there are up to 29 groups, as I understand, and you see just some other examples here on this list. There are up to 29 groups of compounds and one that is so-called the unknown group. And these include things that maybe are new in the market or that even though we know the chemistry of the molecule, then we don't know the impact on the physiology of the insect. So they are not classified as of yet in terms of a mode of action group. And that's why it's very useful to check this list every year because it changes every year based upon the new research that we do. And so for now, at least until this year, there are 29 groups and with an unknown group. And so I'll be referring to these when I present you examples of rotations that can be recommended for control of these pests. A few other things to think about because if you think, of course, everybody that is producing crops in high tunnels will not have all the time in the world to go check list and compare and then make a decision on it. So both manufacturers and researchers are trying to make things easier for you. And one of the ways to simplify this is that now on the labels and of course on the bottles of a particular compound, then you will see this very prominently at the top, it will say group 4A insecticide. And again, that means that based upon that mode of action group list, then this insecticide belongs to the group 4A. And so now that makes it a little simple that now when you're going to establish a rotation, then you want to select insecticides from different mode of action groups. So obviously they will have a different number classification. And then that begins to make sense in terms of making it easy to develop a rotation. So this is the trademark name, of course, for this example, Safari. And then in here where you see active ingredient, in this case, dynotephera. And this is what would appear on that mode of action group list. So that's how you would find that information. Now, when you are looking for insecticides that are available for using high tunnels, then on occasion you might have irrigation systems that you use on those high tunnels. If that's the case, then sometimes then you will see things like this that obviously many of the products will be able to be applied folially. And you will see multiple rates that you will see on these labels. For example, this one, one quarter to half a pound per 100 gallons. That usually is very common of rate is recommended for you some both ornamentals and vegetables. Sometimes in this case, for example, we will have the same rating ounces four to eight ounces per 100 gallons. And then we go into the more common rates that are useful in field crops that are given by acre. So, for example, eight to 16 ounces per acre. So again, in many cases, manufacturers that have labels that are useful for both greenhouses and field rates, they will have both rates that will again, will simplify for you the decision of what to use, how much to use on a given application. But more so there are now more and more manufacturers that are including the following information, especially if the compound is systemic and I will detail more how we use systemic compounds. But basically systemic compound is an insecticide that you could use. You could mix in water and you can use to irrigate the crop and you could irrigate the crop the crop manually or sometimes through irrigation systems. But basically you're doing what we call sometimes people refer to these as chemigation. So basically you add the chemical in the water that goes to the roots of the plant. The idea is that the plant will absorb the chemical through the roots and then will move inside the plant and you will see that some benefits. But then for those cases, then you will see a product such as this one with a label that says OK application to the soil. And then it says OK either containerized plants meaning those that are in pots or sometimes they will give it to you in a rate for bilinear feed. So this one for example it says 12 to 24 ounces per 100 gallons and then it gives you a rate for the size of the pot. And then it gives you for larger pot volumes and so on. So again more and more we see products that are coming up with this information on the label that simplifies the way the way it is used. And I mentioned this because we will see that for a field control, especially for a field control, there are a few compounds that have these characteristics and so you might be faced with the decision of using it either as a foliar spray or as a soil drench. And drench basically means you're supplying that irrigation water in the soil. So having said that, now we're going to go into the two big segments that we have today. First we'll start with thrips and this is the general life cycle. An adult such as this one, the adults will last about 30 to 45 days depending on the temperature. Then, and this is one critical aspect, they will lay the eggs usually inside the leaf tissue or the flower tissue. So the eggs are never exposed. They are inside the leaf tissue. It's very difficult to see them, very difficult to find them, and it's pretty much impossible to kill them, very difficult. So that means they will lay those eggs inside. Those will last for about two to four days. They will hatch into first instars, first instar nymphs. They will begin to feed on the plants. Of course they will last for a couple of days, turn into the next instars and so on. Until they become pre-puppy, which they will last one to two days and that is in preparation to become adults and then will become puppy. Again, one to three days and then we'll turn into adults. Now here's one important aspect of their biology. When they become pre-puppy and puppy thrips usually like to hide. Where do they hide? Most commonly they will drop to the ground. They will pupate in the soil and of course they will be hidden. They will be away from any spray or any treatment that you might do. They will come out from the soil and then will go back up the plant, lay eggs and continue the cycle. Now if the plants do produce flowers that have a lot of pollen, then it's quite possible that the puppy will remain hidden very deep where the petals are. Nevertheless it's the same aspect that it will be very difficult to control them with any kind of application because they are very, very well hidden. They do not feed and that what leads to a lot of problems because even when you get rid of all the adults, if you get left over eggs or if the puppy are already on the ground, they can again come back and continue the cycle again. That's what makes these insects very difficult to control. Over the years we've had many questions about, OK, so can I spray something in the soil to really kill this puppy? It's very difficult. Yes, you will see that some of the systemic compounds when we do drench might have some impact on those puppy, but we won't kill them all. So that still leaves some room for trying to control these. It's more important to try to control them in the foliage and more important than that is to try to prevent them from becoming, from having populations that are really high. OK, and we'll talk about how to do that in a moment. Now this is a picture of how they look like. Of course, this is the size is increased many fold. So these are very tiny. The eggs look like little kidneys. Again, they are laid inside the tissue. Then you can see they do have the cigar shape form that characterizes the thrips. All of these are immature. The big difference between the immature and the adults is obviously the adults will have wings, such as the ones that we see here. And the two last pictures there is first is the male. The males are usually smaller. And the females, which are larger. Obviously, those are the ones that will use the SOV positive to lay the eggs inside the leaf. Now the most common trips that we find here in the US attacking crops in greenhouses, high tunnels and also in many field crops is this one is called the Western flower trips. Very common, very aggressive. In fact, the life cycle that I shown before is based upon these trips. On one occasion, you might find greenhouse trips very rare though. And for those especially that produce that might receive plants or grow plants that are tropical in nature might be affected by these so called Cuban laurel trip. But by far the Western flower trip system most common one. Here is another picture of Western flower trips. And again, this is a little bit artificial. They never laid their wings like this. We just spread them here just to show you that one of the main characteristics are these little hairs that come out of the wings. Of course, this would be very difficult to see with a hand lens. You need a high magnification scope to see it, but just to show you the general shape of these insects. Damage is pretty similar on every crop. This is, for example, a basil that was produced hydroponically. Presenting heavy damage by thrips very, very characteristic. These bronzing that sometimes shows with a dark drop that not circles but like little markings that resemble more like a dot put by a by an ink pen. But it's basically the frass of the of the trips that is there and is very characteristic of the of the damage. Of course, this is heavy damage. In this case, we were surprised. Actually, the recommendation was to remove all the foliage and then let the basic regrow idea, but they had to be very aggressive in terms of their control. Here's for example, a picture of a flower with many, many adults that are here going around. Of course, they are laying eggs on the on the petals of the flower. They like a lot the pollen and they will go and hide high deep into those petals and also it's very difficult to reach them with with any chemical. I'll show you here a little video so that you can see what the nature of the damage is. They have this mouth part that breaks apart cells. In this case, these strips is breaking apart the cell and then beginning to lap the contents of that cell. And I see finished finished with one cell that it moves to the next one in kind of a line. And that's what leads to the damage that we observe previously on the pictures and that you have seen no doubt on some of the crops that are damaged by these insects. Now, both in greenhouses and in high tunnels is very useful to use sometimes sticky cards. The recommendation often is to use one sticky car per thousand square feet. But the best way to use them is to be consistent. Sticky cards cannot tell you how many insects per square area are there, but they are very valuable in telling you what's happening with that population. Is it going up? Is it going down? Now, it's a little bit trickier in high tunnels, especially if you're high tunnels, you open up the sides and there is influx from air from the sides. Then, yes, sometimes you might have populations that are coming from outside, but even then having a sticky card will be even official in the sense that you will know if there is an influx of strips coming into your crops. And as I said, the value of these sticky cards is that you can learn if the population is going up or down. Here I show you a picture of a few zones in this case it was from a greenhouse, showcasing that, yes, one of the zones have a major problem and the reason is because there was an air intake close by, or if you can think about it, an opening on the side of the wall. And then the strips were coming from that side because there were weeds that were loaded with strips. Now, how do we use sticky cards consistently? There are a couple of ways. One of them is you deploy them say today, then you come back tomorrow in the 24 hour cycle, you count how many insects you find, and then you do that same thing next week. Some people what they do is they put them today, wait a week, come and count, and then do that again on a weekly basis. Both of them are correct, but the most important thing is to be consistent. If you check them after 24 hours, then always do that. If you check them after a week, then always do that. Now, if the logistics of your operation are such that you cannot consistently check the numbers on sticky cards, then my recommendation maybe even you cannot use them, because if you're going to deploy them and not take advantage of the counts, then you're wasting your money. Now, another recommendation is please try to keep records. When people count or when people get some idea of the numbers, then please by all means keep those numbers on a spreadsheet. It's very easy to do now because that can give you so much information about what's going on in there. Again, some facilities might not count the whole card, all the insects in the whole card, maybe they will pick, for example from this picture, two squares at random, meaning one square like this today and another one like this, both on one week. And then the next week, they might pick other two, but again being consistent is the most important thing. That way you can get those numbers. Now, every time that we manage insects, we have to think in terms of integrated pest management. That means using all the possible tactics to manage an insect. And in this case, I'll be referring to multiple tactics. One of them will be obviously cultural tactics, that means sanitation. That means obviously in this case, then as you start and put your plants or seed your plants, making sure that you know what's around you. Maybe it's a crop that is very susceptible to thrips or aphids. So you know that at some point in time, you might have an influx from those crops outside coming into the high tunnel. Also, again, if you have the, if you kept records of when infestation happens, they tend to happen at around the same time of the year. So at least you could be prepared to really pay attention to when things are entering so that you can take some action. So yeah, so not only the plants that are inside your high tunnel, but also from those plants that are surrounding the high tunnel. If possible, removing infested plants like now. I understand that in many cases, if you are besides a crop that you also produce, then you will not be getting rid of that crop. But at least it gives you an idea on when in the year you might be needing to pay attention. But on occasion, I see a facilities where you can take care of the weeds that are surrounding the high tunnel. And if you do that, you minimize the chances of an infestation happening. I'll emphasize two tactics today for both thrips and aphids. One will be a management using biological control, which for some people, it's the most important tactic. But also I will be providing recommendations about the use of insecticides. So biological control means using a living organism to control a pest. The living organism, so-called natural enemy, is usually a beneficial insect that will only kill the pest, will not damage the plants, will not do any other damage. So it's very useful for us. And in the case of thrips, there are several beneficial insects that we call predators or predators that are very, very useful. There are a couple of predatory mites, one of them called amblyceosursky. The other one, which is the best one, but unfortunately more expensive, is called amblyceosursky. And also the minute pirate bug. The minute pirate bug occurs naturally, but the problem is for it to occur naturally, you have to have a really large strip of population, which means that you already lost your window to try to effectively keep those populations low. But it can also be purchased and it could also be released. So I'll talk more about that in a moment. But let me start by going into how we deal with these things when we need to lower those populations. Meaning when we need to talk about chemical rotations and the like. So in this case, how do we provide recommendations about insecticide rotations? Well, we have researchers like myself here at Ohio State like others at the NDSU, like Professor Canoodle. And basically we evaluate molecules and we compare their efficacy in different populations. And just to give you an example here, this is a test that I did in my lab a few years back. Just showing you what happened at the end of the test. This is 63 days after treatment. And the size of the bar represents how many trips we have per plant. And basically what we want is a low bar. The lower the bar, the better. The control or untreated plants are these one at the end, which in the slide shows as brown or red. And basically what we see are three compounds, conserved, pylon. And the third one, the green one, overture, being really good at controlling trips. And so based upon that information, then we provide examples of rotations. And this information is developed not only one state, but in multiple states. And the idea is once we have a lot of information, then we can really provide very strong recommendations about what molecules are better. For the control of particular insects. And again, these research is done every year because we need to be up to date. Because of course, unfortunately, insects do develop insecticide resistance. And so we need to keep that in mind. So again, here come the information that I had mentioned to you about using mode of action. Not every insecticide, of course, will affect trips the same way. And there are reports of resistance in multiple areas of the world. These are just a few that are shown on this picture to the top corner. For example, this is a dot in basically the area of California, Arizona, New Mexico. But there are other areas now, for example, in Florida. I know there has been a reported issue with resistance and some in the Midwest. But these are some of the largest areas where we know we have found populations both in the field and greenhouse of trips populations that are resistant to many of the insecticides that we have available. That's why it's very important to follow really good rotations. And then to pay attention because sometimes a molecule that was working for us a few years back is not anymore. And the only way we can learn about that is obviously by keeping track of those trips numbers. So here are some recommendations for management of resistance. Obviously, you're always using the label to make decisions about use of an insecticide, use different mode of action groups to develop a rotation. Avoid treating subsequent generations with the same mode of action and I'll mention that in a moment. They say that they recommend no more than three sprays per crop cycle of any of the active ingredients, meaning a mode of action group and other recommendations. But here are some of the groups that they say that have some activity against trips. Group 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B and so on. And here on this side, they put some of the active ingredients. But to make things a little easier than I provide an example of a rotation. Again, this is not the only rotation. There can be more based upon the availability of chemicals in your state. And also obviously a big component of this is the cost of some of these molecules. But I can tell you that any rotation to control trips in high tunnels had to have at least one of these three molecules. Or sometimes all of them need to be included. Spinosa, which is known as conserve for the management of trips in high tunnels in other areas. Very important, very good compound. Unfortunately, there are some populations that are already resistant to this compound. On top of that, this compound in here, I have added obviously in each row, a different mode of action group with examples of the chemical, both the trade name and the active ingredient. But also I've added a column, which includes the impact of that chemical on the most common beneficial organisms, especially if you rely on releases of beneficials. Or maybe you know, you have seen that in your high tunnels and you get some of these beneficials coming into the crop and then helping clean that from the trips. Another one is pylon. And as I had mentioned earlier, the recommendation is, let's say you are using these compounds on a weekly basis on a weekly spray. Then you would spray maybe two times spinosa in some cases up to three times before moving to the next mode of action group, which in this case would be pylon or chlorophenapyr. And then again, do the same thing with that compound before moving on to overture. Now, why is that? Because a trip cycle lasts normally about two weeks. And so the idea is to prevent resistance from happening, then you want to expose that population of trips to one compound. And then when they, let's say they finish the cycle, they go again into eggs and then become nymphs again, then you switch to a different molecule with the idea that those insects that survive, then now you will challenge them with a different molecule and then kill them. That reduces the chances of insecticide resistance from happening in your area. And so it's very useful. This technique is what we call a rotation, very key. And yes, some of these compounds need to be included again, some of these three need to be included for the rotation to be very strong. Louise, can I just stop you there for a second and ask are all of these chemicals rated for vegetables and ornamentals? Some are for vegetables, both vegetables and ornamentals. Some are just for ornamentals, but I am going to show next the ones that are specifically for vegetables. Thank you. Yes. And it would be a matter of course, to be sure it would be a matter of checking the label or sometimes checking with your vendor, whoever supplies the chemicals and then say, okay, so I want to use these. Could you tell me if these are rated for vegetables and ornamentals or both? Okay. Now, I know, and I'm moving on to the next list, these are specifically, these are, I know that in their labels, he said specifically vegetables. But the trick sometimes comes that, for example, what do we do with a strawberry? Strawberries, of course, sometimes appears in some leaves, sometimes appears on others. So then, yes, so you have to go to specifically strawberries and match it and to see if one of these active ingredients is listed on that. And so that's why I included some examples here. And notice that the, these compound spinosa is the same active ingredient, but the trademark name is different. It's called in trust. Now it's not called conserved. Now these also happens to be a compound that it is Omri approved. And Omri is the least of compounds that could be used when you're producing an organic crop. Okay, so some people will produce even in high tunnels, organically certified, either vegetables or something like that. So this compound would be available for use in those settings. Another one is chlorophenapir and keep in mind that for vegetables, of course, we always talk about the post harvest interval. How many days do we have to wait before we can harvest that fruit or that crop safely. And you can see that for in trust is one day of post harvest interval for pylon is zero. And there are others, for example, that are in the market that are more biologically based in this case. They are of course spray like any other chemical, but it's based on a fungi. The fungi is called buberia basiana. Okay, and I'll explain more how to use these because they are they are different in the way that they act compared to other molecules. And so these are specific again for for vegetables. And there are there are others coming into the market. And I'll mention those especially with relate the relationship with if it control in a moment. Well, let's switch a little bit to beneficial organisms. nematodes can be useful to try to control trips to some extent. And basically, this is a trips that has a lot of little roundworms inside its body. They are they are growing in there and eventually will kill them. Those are nematodes. Okay. And here's an example of a formulation of nematodes that basically this is called Steiner Nima. One of the products is called nemesis. So this product. It comes as a paste that paste is mixing water. Inside the water come these roundworms. And I know that you probably have heard about nematodes. There are some that are a that are damaging to plants. But these are not the same kind they belong to a completely different group that specializes on killing insects, basically. That's why it's very useful as a biological control agent. So you basically mix it in water and then you go spray that water usually aiming it to the soil so that they could go after those are puppy of trips in this case but also they have some uses as foliar sprays. Now the most difficult part with this is is when you spray them. Especially if you're using a high volume sprayer, you cannot use really high pressures to try to control them. Excuse me. So yes, so you can use them on a regular sprayer. Here is the example of botanical. Is a biopesticide based on the fungaburri of Asiana. And here we see the example of the presentation. There are others as well but the best known one is is botanical. Here I'm going to show you a video of another type of beneficial organism. And this is this is a predatory might is called by a school. I'm listening to Sorsky. And this is what they do. This is the might. This is the trips. So they go home for them to capture them. They feed on them. And so they are very, very good at finding them even on their hiding spaces. And yes, they are stronger faster than them. So that's why they are very successful. And so that's another way to control these trips. Most commonly, these predatory mites are purchased from vendors. Some of them include BioBest or the company Copper. The most common way of releasing them is using these little baggies called sachets that are put on the plants or every so often in the soil. And then these mites come out. Again, the mites will not damage the plants. They only concentrate on killing the trips. They will move up the plant and they will search for the trips and destroy them. But of course, that means that apart from the expense of the mites themselves, the two bigger expenses are the the shipping costs. And also they were included into releasing them. So that's why we've been doing research into trying to at least reduce the release expenses. I'll show you that in a moment. But often I hear the question, do they work? Here I'm showing a picture showing that they definitely work and these are some vegetables. This was test done on peppers. And here is a pepper that is the control basically nothing was done. And you can see that the plant cannot grow because on top of the physical damage and trips also transmit diseases to them. Then we have here one where another species called ambiceous cucumbers was used. Grow okay, but then didn't produce fruit as well. And then we have a very healthy pepper plant where ambiceous source key was used to control. Okay, so here is one of the ways that we're trying to evaluate how to release the spread through mites better. And it's something as simple as a fun. Right, basically this operator has a battery pack that he's carrying that battery pack powers are a fan here and powers a little bit this tumbler that goes around. It has some holes, the carrier material with the preterite mites is there. And as this tumbler goes around, then as the whole comes through, then some portion of those mites will come and then the air will blow them through the distance. They will cover the area that you're trying to release these mites on. And so the mites will land on the leaves, and then will go do their job. It's simple, but a few of the things that need to be developed in research and that's why we're working on it is that the air movement or the air current cannot be so high, because yes, you make them land really far, but then you can break their legs and if you break their legs and at the end, then they are not useful. They cannot walk, they cannot hunt for trips. So yes, and some companies, for example, in this case, these fine is from the company corporate. If you pay for their services, then they can provide these fine and these makes the application of these beneficial insects a little bit cheaper, at least at the part of the release methods. Now there are others, we're trying to do some more research, maybe developing drones for use of release mechanisms for these biological control agents, but at least for using high tunnels, it's not there yet. There is no commercial drone yet that can be used for that purpose. However, the funds are available. When you're using or relying on both chemicals and biological control agents, then we're talking about, yes, trying to take a look at the impact of those chemicals on beneficial organisms. In this case, these are two, this is the one that I was talking about on this user's key and one common compound to kill the wildlife and others. You see, there is no information here, but for others, there is information that showcase that some, if they are showing in red, are harmful, and if they show in yellow or green, there might be more compatible. And because of that, then we can develop recommendations such as this one, conserve, could be harmful on eggs and adults of umbilical surgery, but if you use it as a drink, then it could be fine. And so this is kind of information that if you really want to do both biological control and insecticide use, then could be very, very beneficial. We're doing testing my lab, this showcase a new compound called mainspring. We're useful against aphids, and I'll mention that in a moment. Basically, if you see these three bars the same, then basically means that the compound wasn't affected by the chemical. They grew the same way, and that means that it was compatible. So yes, we're trying to come up with more information about that. So I'll switch gears and over the next 10 or so minutes, then I'll talk more about aphids. Aphids are rather interesting because they can reproduce without having to mate. Basically, a female lands on a plant and they can go right away into producing little babies. They don't even lay eggs. Some of the species just give rise to living children, which means that you might have one aphid today and in a week you end up with 200 or more, which is why sometimes one week you don't have a problem with aphids and the next week you have an outbreak because they reproduce so quickly. Sometimes as the cycle shows, there will be wing adults, but the interesting thing with wing adults is that you will only see them when there is an outbreak. Why? Because when there is a lot of aphids on a plant, then the plant quality declines and the aphids sense that. And so basically they develop these wing forms so they can escape that area and discover a new area to feed. And by the time obviously you find these wing versions on sticky cards, then you know there must be a very big outbreak somewhere in your high tonal. And so that's very, very problematic. So it's better to discover them before you see these wing varieties. Aphids are really easy to identify at least in general because they have basically a pear shape. They have piercing sucking mouth parts, sometimes long antennae, but the key characteristic is this part at the end. We call them cornicles, but I always tell everybody, it's easier to remember them if we call them tailpipes. Why? Because you find the eyes of the aphid, here is the head. You go all the way toward the ends and you see these things. These are the so-called tailpipes. If you see these on an insect, it's an aphid. Only aphids from the major pests will have this kind of characteristic, so it's easy to at least know that you're dealing with an aphid. Now there are many different species, especially in high tonals there might be multiple species depending on the crop. But one of the most common ones is the green peach aphid. Sometimes the melon aphid also attacks other crops. Here are examples of a wing version of the green peach aphid and also one small one. And as you can see, a little bit the different color, especially on the cornicles, the melon aphid that could be found attacking multiple crops. Integrated pest management for aphids, then obviously you need to rely on sanitation and start with clean plants. Again, check around your high tonal, making sure that you sample, that you monitor those plants every so often to make sure that aphids are not coming in. And again, if you have historical data from your facility, then you might have a sense when in the year these things might be showing up. Biological control is an option, but here is very critical. There are multiple species out there of beneficial insects that can attack aphids. But many of them are very specific to a particular species of aphids. That means that you have to be 100% certain of which species of aphids you have before you engage into biological control. We've had issues in our state where people have gone and tried to use biological control, unfortunately, having the wrong identification of aphid and then wasting money because they don't do their job. So this is very, very critical. Now here is an example of, again, coming from the mode of action recommendations. They are saying, okay, so first pick from one group. They call it group W, then group X, then group Y, group C. Before you return to group W, that means that once we select the different insecticides of our rotation program, then we can go for mode of action groups deep before we come back and repeat the product from the same mode of action group. Sometimes you need to go five deep or 60. Okay, so keep that in mind, especially with regards to aphids. Here I put a chart of mode of action groups that are active against, for example, aphids. We have multiple groups here. And I'll have an example of a rotation both for, yes, ornamentals and other plants and also vegetables. But I will emphasize one group, one mode of action group, called the neonicotinoids. The neonicotinoids include compounds such as marathons, flagship, triceratophiles, and salaro. These are the active ingredients. These are systemic compounds. These are the ones that I have mentioned earlier that you could do a drench with. Okay, so keep that in mind. One of the questions came to my lab about, okay, so let's say I have a compound that is systemic and I can use it either as a drench or as a spray. Which one would be better? The answer is both are good, but depend on how you, when you use them. Okay, so just to make the story short, we did some research in my lab showing that when you spray a leaf, and in this case we covered all the other leaves, we spray a leaf, and we put aphids on all the plant, then yes, the leaf that was sprayed, we control the aphids really well. But the compound did not move as well up or down the plant. It did move a little bit, but not enough that it will kill all the aphids up or down the plant. Which means that if you use the compound as a spray, then you want to make sure that you have really good coverage. You want to treat that compound as if it was a contact spray. Yes, it will move inside the leaf, but you want to make sure that you have a really good coverage to be successful. Now, this is the same experiment, but when we compare drenches, then what we found out is that if you put the water here, the compound with the water, and it's absorbed by the roots, the product will move better inside the plant. So yes, using it as a drench helps you control better those insects. And I realize that sometimes for some of the logistics, this might not be impossible, but when it is, then drenches are good. But when you use drenches, it's always better to use these in a prevention way. So that means if you every year have had problems with aphids, you could start by putting some of these compounds early as the plants are being planted. And that will give you protection for about a month, month and a half. Here's another piece of research that we were showing that, yes, this is the black line is the control. The red line is plants that were treated, but with these systemic compounds and we wanted to see how long their effect lasted. And we've seen these both in the field and in high tons in greenhouses that the full effect of these compounds last about 30 days. After that, then the effect begins to wear off a little bit. So it gives you about a month to maybe a month and a half of full protection. Then after that, then it begins to decline, but maybe that's the window that you need to protect those compounds that protect those plants from attack from aphids. Again, not surprisingly then, yes, in this case the compound was thymotoxin, the concentration kept going down early on. Now we also evaluated what was the effect of beneficial organism and surprisingly enough, lady beetles such as the convergent lady beetle was not affected if it fed on aphids that had been exposed to the chemical. So the lady beetles did fine. On the opposite hand, another good beneficial called the minute pirate bug was very effective. So that means that the compatibility between these beneficials and insecticides vary depending on the molecule and depending on the beneficial insect. So something to keep in mind. Now for some, and I realize that these might not have such a big impact on high tonal crops, but some might might be interested on this, especially some people that might produce some curbits in high tunnels. They might have an impact on or they will have an impact on pollinators such as bees. And so you need to be mindful of when these things are applied. If you apply them early on again as a drench to give you protection for months, maybe a month and a half then great. But when the plant is already producing a lot of flowers, then you might want to avoid applying any of these compounds doing those windows because you will impact the pollinators. And of course, that's something that you don't want to do. Again, this is more when you're producing flowers, but it's just a recommendation of best practices when you're using neonicotinoids that it is applied them early in the season and not late. Again, here is a table with recommendation about some of the products that are useful. Again, these include both vegetables and ornamentals. And again, these lists will be available to you. Again, this 4A group is very important that has a lot of the neonicotinoids available. And of course, these are more than coming into the market. This is a new compound, mainspring, and this is another one, Altus. Both of them, I believe, will be available for vegetables. And it depends on the state. For some states they are already available, for others are not yet. Yeah, so keep that in mind. Again, to match up with the list of compounds that are available in your state for use on vegetables. Now, again, poracitoids in this case, beneficial insects, these are little stingless wasps. I call them stingless because they don't sting humans. They only kill aphids. And they will lay an egg inside the aphid. Then they will hatch as a larvae inside the aphid. And you see them here, the larvae feeds from the inner organs of the aphid. The aphid changes in form, turns orangish, and then they die. And then the adult of the wasp comes out to kill more aphids. And this is what you see. These are the so-called mummies that are found in so many different crops. And I've seen a lot of different crops in high tunnels. And this is a good sign. That means these beneficials are there helping you get rid of aphids. But on the other hand, usually if they show up by themselves without you releasing them, that means the population of aphids reach a pretty high number. In many facilities, both high tunnels and greenhouses, then some people, what they do is they begin to release these beneficials earlier, even before the pest shows up to make sure that the crop is clean. These are just examples of research that shows that, yes, these beneficial insects are pretty useful in terms of keeping those aphid populations low. And some useful sites that I put here. One is the Master's of Plant Health for those interested in pursuing higher levels of education, even through an online degree. And a blog that we have for managers related to greenhouses. And now we are also including information about high tunnels. But of course, NDSU has this really cool place where you're putting the recordings for you to keep up to date with new changes. And I'll stop there and I'll be happy to take any questions. Thank you, Luis. Is there anybody that has questions? This is your opportunity. There are a couple of different ways you can ask questions. You can certainly turn on your microphone. The other manner is that you can certainly type a question in the chat box. It's totally up to you. All right, so go ahead and start typing in that chat box because this is your opportunity to ask the questions that you have. Oh, here we go. Yes. First question now, will some of the aphid chemicals work on white flies? Yes. Many of the same compounds that I listed for that are active against aphids will be active on white flies as well. In fact, there was a little list there that had a comparison for mode of action groups that are active on aphids that also have a checkbox for white flies. In fact, the Neonicotinoid group that I mentioned earlier is very active on white flies in aphids. And the new compound, both of the new compounds Altus and Main Spring that are coming into the markets are very active on both. All right, any other questions? All right, from Jacob Clusa, if I want to minimize my post-harvest interval, what modes of action do you recommend? Yes, excellent. So basically, this is the post-harvest interval is set for a given chemical. So obviously, minimizing the post-harvest interval means to try to use either compounds that are very safe for use in the crop that you are trying to target. And basically, what I would recommend first to do is go through a list of compounds that are active against the pests that you have in mind. And then on the label, it will say PHI. Then check that PHI and look for those that are either zero or four hours, which are the two, I guess, shortest categories. And that will help you minimize that PHI. Oh, we've got somebody that raised their hand. I think that was Chuck or Barb Shulstad. Go ahead and ask your question. Let's see, do you have your microphone? Okay, in the meantime, I'm going to answer one of the questions there as well. Where can you purchase beneficial insects? Excellent question. Sometimes this depends on the state that you are, but many of the larger insectaries, they sell all throughout the 48 contiguous states. For example, here on the, one of the recommendations I didn't mention earlier is that it's useful to find a vendor that it is either on your same time zone or is close to it. Why? Because sometimes you might have questions to ask and it's useful to call them and ask their input. For example, here on the east coast, there is a vendor called IPM Labs. It is based on New York and basically they shipped all through the east coast and sometimes obviously to the states in the Midwest and so on. There's also vendors in the west coast. For example, in California, there are several. Two that come to mind. Well, one that comes to mind is Rincon Vitova. And there's another one called Arbico, which is in Arizona. But two of the largest companies that sell beneficial insects are called Biobest and or Copper. And usually they lease vendors by state that can provide their products. Okay. So there are multiple ways, but I will try to put on the chat box some of their links so that you can have an idea on where to go. I think, okay. Okay, great. So our next question is we had a high population of lady bugs this year, but did not see any signs of plant damage of either pests described here. Would this be an indication that we had some kind of infestation that we did not see? Excellent point. But it might be that the infestation happened outside of your facility and not in the facility where you saw the lady. Lady beetles in general are like aphids and it depends. Some of them will feed a lot on soybean aphids. So sometimes when the soybean is in the field and they will be feeding on them and when it's dried up or harvested, then the lady beetles will move to other areas. In fact, sometimes they will move to high-toned areas and all that. And that's where you might see them. But it's a good thing that you didn't have an infestation because obviously they could have ended up helping. Okay, great. Are there certain weeds that really need to be controlled to reduce the 3P infestations? Well, unfortunately, thrips like somewhere around 300 different hosso plants. So they will feed on a lot of different kinds of weeds. So I could not even begin to list the weeds that they like. But one good way to find out, especially in your area, is when you begin to, oh, first of all, then it would be ideal not to leave those weeds to grow. But if that cannot be done, then you can certainly every so often just collect a few leaves, see if you see thrips damaged there, and then you can be certain or not that that plant is harboring thrips. Okay, question. Do any of the beneficials have a preferred host range? If I inoculate vegetables with the beneficials, move to another crop such as flowers? Well, basically, the beneficials are more attracted to their prey item. So it wouldn't be a plant per se. It would be more those plants that have a particular insect that they are going to be feeding upon. Now, having said that, one of the best ways to use biological control in high tunnels and in greenhouses is to release those beneficials even before the pest reaches the plant. Why? It seems counterintuitive, but basically you are using them to keep the plants clean, to prevent any pests from establishing on your plant. And then you could ask, so what happens to these beneficials if there is no prey? Well, some of them are cannibalistic, so they'll eat each other. Of course, you might think, oh, wow, but I'm wasting my time with that. Not really because what they would do is they will feed preferably on any of the pests, and once they consume that, then they will look for something else. And yes, if you have flowers in the area, they might end up moving there, but only after feeding on the pests that are in the particular crop. So that's why for some of them, it's especially important the release method that you use. In many cases, for example, lady beetles is one of the problems because you release lady beetles here, and if it's open, the high tunnel, they might end up somewhere else. And so one of the recommendations is you release them at the end of the day before it's getting dark, so they have to stay put on that area, and then they can search that area before moving somewhere else. Okay, next question. Would planting certain flowers around help deter these plants, like these pests, like marigolds? Well, yes, marigolds are shown to be really good at preventing some pests, especially soil-borne pests, because they have some natural compounds that deter some pests from damaging them. However, you have to plant quite a few of them to really have a good effect in terms of either capturing things and not letting them go into your high tunnel. And so I would say, unless that area, you're not using it for something of value, then yes, it might not be the best way to prevent the plants from getting in. All right, any other questions? Well, I might just ask, is there a certain point at which it's too late to be applying beneficials, and at that point, you would then be more likely to use a chemical control? Yes, there is. If you already have a really high population that is damaging your crop, then that's not the time to use a beneficial organism, because it will take too long for you to control. At that point in time, it's better to use a chemical to drop down that population quickly, and then maybe thinking, again, if they are compatible with the beneficials, then restarting a biological control program. So that's why I mentioned before, biological control is better used as a prevention tool. So it would be probably good for our producers to start planning right now. All right, any other questions? Last call for questions? Well, thank you very much, Dr. Ken Yoss. This was a very useful webinar. I know I learned a lot today. It's really a changing world with all of the beneficials and biological controls that are being introduced. So it's just so very important for us to stay in tuned with the new information that is coming out. Correct. I'll just answer the last couple of questions that came in. Oh, okay. Yes. One, how well do beneficials mentioned here overwinter in high tunnels? Some will overwinter, some will not. The best way is not to rely on their overwintering to actually control the pests is to release them again. But because that way you end up with enough numbers quickly to really control the pests. And the next one is, if a high tunnel has had trips problems this year, will trips be an ongoing problem in the future? Unfortunately, most likely the answer is yes, because some of them will overwinter in the soil and then they will be ready to go when the new plants come in. So that's why you want to start even if you select to go either way with biological control with chemicals to look for them early in the season to make sure that your plants are maintained clean. Okay. Any other questions? Well, thank you very much, Luis. Now we will be recording this and posting this online for those individuals that were not able to see that. Now we would like to have more individuals on our listserv. So if you have friends and others that are interested in our high tunnel series, they can email me and I will put them on our NDSU high tunnel listserv. And then one other thing, we do have our next webinar scheduled for January 10, and our own Kyla Splickle will be presenting on construction issues. So I would actually ask a lot of you to participate in this webinar, even if you have already constructed high tunnels and don't have any plans to build more. What I would like to do is, you know, after Kyla has presented, it would be nice if we had a number of you that are experienced in high tunnel construction can be part of our discussion. So that will be on January 10 at 1pm. Well, thank you, everyone. I'll be sending you an email with our new website and happy holidays to everybody.