and other beneficial

Kevin Burls, Ph.D. Integrated Management Educator Grant funding University of Nevada Extension provided by

Grow Your Own Nevada • diversity and biology

• benefits of native

• Integrated Pest Management

• Controlling pests in the garden with beneficial insects

• Protecting beneficial insects

• Creating habitat

Steve Siegel Pollination

By Mariana Ruiz LadyofHats - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/ w/index.php?curid=2273307 Pollinator Diversity

• Butterflies & • Bees

• •

• Hummingbirds & bats • Why think about pollinators? • They rely on plants, so our plant management matters

• 1/3 of human food consumption

• Seed crop production

• Pollinate 3/4 of native flowering plant species

• Prey for almost literally everything else

• Many also serve as pest management • Conservation Biological Control • Especially wasps and flies

• Nevadan natural heritage www.xerces.org

From Xerces Society’s Best Management Practices for Pollinators on Western Rangelands You can buy this poster! Go to etsy.com and search for the shop BeesInYourBackyard

Native characteristics •4,000 species in •800 – 1,000 species in Nevada!

•3/4 nest in burrows in the ground •1/4 nest in wood cavities

•Vast majority are solitary Pollinator life cycles

Complete metamorphosis

Distinct larval and adult life stages, with a pupal stage in between, resulting in major changes in body shape and sexual maturity

Native groundnesting bee Pollinator needs • Larval food source e532.jpg content/uploads//be as.edu/ http://w3.biosci.utex wikimedia / jha wp -

• Adult food source

• Habitat

The Bees in Your Backyard Wikipedia The Bees in Your Backyard Bee foraging

courtesy of Joseph Wilson Bee nests Youtube www.xerces.org Youtube www.beediverse.com

https://beediverse.com Pollination

www.blog.uvm.edu Steve Scholl

Mason bees were 5x more effective than bees at pollinating apples Buzz pollination

By Bob Peterson from North Palm Beach, Florida, Planet Earth! - Buzz Pollination (Sonication), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38199019 seed production

Photo by Carol Davis, Davis County, UT; .net; used under license CC-BY-ND-NC 1.0 From pollinators to pest management…. What is a pest?

• Too many in one place • Takes resources from/ cause injury to production plants • Appears where you don’t want it • Unsightly Green peach (Myzus persicae) giving live birth to a nymph. Photo Credit: Jim Baker, North Carolina State University, Bugwood.org How do things become pests?

• Unhealthy plants or soil • Stressful environment • Seasonality • Annual cycles • Lack of predators or competition

Macrosiphum rosae, aphid. Photo by Anne W. Gideon, Bugwood.org Integrated Pest Management • Management designed to reduce pests below economic thresholds in ways that minimize non-target effects Biological control

• Use of natural enemies to control pest populations

• May mean some pests remain throughout treatment

• Often hindered by chemical use

• Classical Biological Control • Augmentative Biological Control • Conservation Biological Control Classical Biological Control

Macrosiphum rosae, rose aphid. Photo by Anne Red Storm Photo W. Gideon, Bugwood.org Conservation Biological Control • Focused on increasing abundance • More commonly applied to animal and diversity of naturally occurring pests, but can be extended to plant predators and parasitoids pests

• Most are nectar feeders as adults • Some are predatory at all life stages and predators as larvae

Preventative Cultural Physical Biological

Plant selection Grazing modifications Bee houses Banker plants Hedgerows Burning modifications banks Alternative hosts Insectary strips Timing change Brush piles Cover crops Predators • Spiders

Neil Bertrando

Banded garden spider Argiope trifasciata By Alvesgaspar - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?c urid=20594342 Predators

• Spiders Centipedes (Chilopoda)

• Includes house centipede • Centipedes (Scutigera coleoptrata) Possible stone centipede Lithobius • Fast and flattened (compare with slow and round millipedes)

• Venomous bite (usually very mild around NV)

Soil centipede (Family Geophilomorpha) By EnDumEn - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=753911 Mantids (Mantodea)

Predators • Hungry! And not picky

• Spiders • Several non-native species used for garden release o Chinese • Centipedes o European mantis o Mediterranean mantis • Solifugids

• Mantids

Mediterranean mantis () Blue Point Spring, Clark Co.

Photo from bugguide.net, taken by Alice Abela https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd- nc/1.0/ Nevada Mantid examples

Ground mantis (Litaneutria sp.) Verdi, Nevada Red Rock NCA, Clark Co. July 2018

Photo from bugguide.net, taken by Jason R Eckberg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/ Steve Scholl Wasps (Hymenoptera) Predators • Prey generalists • Spiders and specialists • Prey used for Sand wasps, Bembix sp. Tarantula hawk , Pepsis sp. • Centipedes larval growth Red Storm Photo Bugguide.net, Bruce Lund • Require nectar • Mantids as adults

• Usually not • Wasps aggressive unless bothered Western killer, Sphecius canvallis

Red Storm Photo Red Storm Photo

Thread-waisted wasp, Sphecidae By Alpsdake - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Red Storm Photo Predatory beetles https://commons.wikimedia .org/w/index.php?curid=194 63909 • Ladybugs () Predators o Often nonnative releases or wild-collected • Spiders • Ground beetles (Carabidae) o Faster than darkling beetles • Centipedes o Larger jaws

• Checkered beetles () • Mantids • Most often predatory as larvae (maybe even better than adults!) • Wasps , Pasimachus sp. • Prey generalists and specialists • Beetles Red Storm Photo

Checkered Beetles (Possibly both ornate checkered beetle, ornatus) Predators

• Spiders

By Katja Schulz from Washington, D. C., USA (Syrphid attacking cereal ) • Centipedes [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

• Mantids Hover / Flower flies (Syrphidae)

• Wasps • Active predators as larvae

• Drink nectar as adults • Beetles

• Flies Predators

• Spiders Lacewings (Neuroptera)

• Voracious aphid predators • Centipedes

• Mantids

• Wasps

• Beetles

• Flies

By Alvesgaspar - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, • Lacewings https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=409 39372 Parasitoids • Organism that uses another animal as a host for part of its life cycle, typically killing the host in the process of development

• Typically flies and wasps, along with a few other groups

Tomato Tobacco hornworm hornworm

Manduca Manduca quinquemaculata sexta

Hyposoter exiguae Cotesia congregata Trichogramma

Above photos from University of California IPM More Nevada parasitoids

Tachinid Gymnosoma sp. Protecting pollinators and managing pests

• Managed pollinators

• and herbicides

• Habitat design & plant species selection • Honey bees, alfalfa leafcutters, mason bees, & some bumble bees

• Essentially managing from the animal side

• Focus on hive location and application awareness, along with Best Management Practices • 2 mile Ag radius, nearest urban neighbors

• Visit http://agri.nv.gov/Plant/Entomology/Entomology_Home/ for the NV Pollinator Protection Plan General pesticide application Best Management Practices

• In general, avoid the following: • spraying during daytime/blooming periods • Drift conditions • Non-target locations (water, , nectar, nesting materials, etc.)

• Minimize use and plan timing http://ucanr.edu for using: • • Pyrethroids • Organophosphates • N-methyl carbonates Neonicotinoids currently registered in Nevada:

Imidacloprid (Admire, Gaucho) Thiamethoxam (Cruiser, Platinum) Clothianidin (Poncho) Acetamiprid (Assail)

https://xerces.org/wings-archive/neonicotinoids-in-your-garden/

Neonicotinoid BMPs

• Avoid applications on or vegetable plants that require animal pollination (especially annuals)

• Avoid applications on shrubs or trees that are visited by pollinators- lindens, locusts, fruit trees

• Avoid applications within ?? miles of managed pollinators Effects of herbicides on insects Maintaining habitat for pollinators and beneficial insects • Maintain cavity and soil nesting materials for bees and beneficial predators • Maintain some amount of native bare soil and nesting material • Pesticide-free materials

• Select plant species carefully and for diversity • Farming with Native Beneficial Insects (Xerces) • Attracting Native Pollinators (Xerces) Types of beneficial habitats

• Field borders • Insectary strips • Hedgerows • Windbreaks

Things to Consider • Tree/shrub/forb • Annual/perennial USDA • Native/nonnative • Water needs for Beneficial Insects

 Garden Design to Benefit Pollinators . Layout—Clump pollinator plants! (Clump size minimum of 3’X3’ [9 sq. ft.]) . Plant Selection- Diversity, diversity, diversity o Bloom time (Have at least 9 species, 3 early- blooming, 3 mid-season blooming, and 3 late- blooming) o Bee diversity maximized with 15 flowering plant species o Flower color

Slide borrowed with permission from Michelle Hunt, FWS Sample Design

Slide borrowed with permission from Michelle Hunt, FWS

UNR Biggest Little Pollinator Garden Elko

Reno

Gardnerville Yerington

Residential

Nevada Demonstration Overton Agricultural Pollinator Gardens Las Vegas Washoe County Extension Office Demonstration Garden Elko Extension Demonstration Garden Overton Demonstration Garden-

Lost City Museum Las Vegas Demonstration Garden Gardnerville

Top Easy(ish) Native Plants

• Globemallows (Sphaeralcea spp.) • Penstemons (Penstemon spp.) • P. palmeri, P. eatonii, P. rydbergii, P. strictus • P. speciousus • P. palmeri and P. speciosus • Buckwheats (Eriogonum spp.) • E. umbellatum • also good butterfly hosts • Milkweeds- spp. • Common yarrow- • Willows- Salix spp. Seedlings from NDF • Rabbitbrush (Ericameria and Chrysothamnus spp.) • Almost all available from the NDF Nursery in Washoe Valley • Request these from your favorite plant provider • Some of my favorite nonnative plants • Lavender • Mints & herbs • Sunflowers • Carrots • Sedums Take-home messages

• Native insect life cycles are complex and sensitive to environmental disturbances

• Native pollinators are good garden pollinators

• Native insects are also great pest control

• Create habitat for beneficial insects with bare space and flowers- natives if possible Imagine a garden with the right type of bugs….

Control of: • Tomato hornworms • Fruit tree caterpillars • • Aphids • Stink bugs • Beetles

Along with increased pollination and better tasting food! Thank you!

Kevin Burls, Ph.D. Integrated Pest Management Educator [email protected]

Master Gardener Cell: 775-399-8522

This work is supported by the Nevada Extension Implementation Program (Grant 2017-70006-27198) from the USDA National Institute of Food and