Poster Display
Plant-Insect Ecosystems
Anurag Singh, III
Fort Valley State University
Fort Valley, Georgia
Sanower Warsi, Ph.D.
Fort Valley State University
Fort Valley, Georgia
George N. Mbata
Professor of Entomology & Crop Protection
Fort Valley State University
Fort Valley, Georgia
Yinping Li
Postdoctoral Research Professional, California
Squash is an important crop in the United States; however, squash cultivation faces challenges from various insect pests. Traditionally, synthetic pesticides have been employed to manage these pests, but beneficials are threatened by insecticides. It is important to conserve the beneficials and to understand both the abundance and diversity of beneficials in crops. The population dynamics of insect pollinators and natural enemies were evaluated weekly on 20 squash cultivars for six weeks in summer and fall 2021 and fall 2022. Our results revealed that Orius spp. were the most common natural enemies across all seasons. The number of Orius peaked significantly in week 6 on the cultivars ‘Amberpic 8455’ and ‘Gentry’ during the summer of 2021. Wasp populations peaked in sampling weeks 3 and 5 in the 2021 summer and fall seasons. Among beneficials, wasps (baldfaced hornet), moths, butterflies, and bees (including honeybees, sweat bees, bumblebees, and carpenter bees) were the most prevalent. The cultivar ‘Golden Goose Hybrid’ was notably more attractive to moth populations in the fall of 2021. In general, the population of the pollinators peaked in early sampling weeks (weeks 2, 3, and 4) and were lowest in week 5. Notably, rainfall showed significant negative correlations with the populations of bees. These results provide important insights for the integrated pest management (IPM) of squash.