ENHANCED BERM HABITATS INCREASES THE ABUNDANCE OF NATURAL ENEMIES OF INSECT PESTS AND POLLINATORS IN THE HOLLAND MARSH, ONTARIO by Dillon Brian Muldoon A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Sciences Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Dillon Brian Muldoon, May 2020 ABSTRACT ENHANCED BERM HABITATS INCREASES THE ABUNDANCE OF NATURAL ENEMIES OF INSECT PESTS AND POLLINATORS IN THE HOLLAND MARSH, ONTARIO Dillon Brian Muldoon Advisors: University of Guelph, 2020 Dr. C. Scott-Dupree Dr. M.R. McDonald The Holland Marsh (HM), Ontario, is an agroecosystem with a primary focus on carrot and onion production. It contains negligible uncultivated habitat to support beneficial insect populations. Upgrades to the HM drainage system have provided an opportunity to investigate how enhancements to canal berms can affect natural enemies of insect pest populations and pollinators. Five berm sites were established, each with three treatments: (1) unmanaged control; (2) a floral enhancement; and (3) a floral + shrub enhancement. These sites were monitored over two years using both active and passive trapping. Enhanced berm sites did not offer refugia for primary insect pests, and positively affected the abundance of some natural enemies and insect pollinator groups. Future research should examine: the efficacy of natural enemies in reducing primary insect pest population; and, the relative floral attractiveness of planted floral treatments to bee species to better understand how management strategies can support threatened non-Apis bees. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to express my gratitude to my co-advisors, Drs. Cynthia Scott-Dupree and Mary-Ruth McDonald, who gave me the opportunity to do my MSc under their guidance. Thank you both for your advice, support, the many opportunities to travel to and present at scientific conferences, and your backing of my outreach event efforts. I am also grateful to my committee members Drs. Tara Garipey and Lora Morandin for their advice, guidance and support throughout my research journey. To Drs. Andrew Frewin, Gard Otis, and Angela Gradish for your consultation on statistics and methodology. I would like to thank the funding agencies: Ontario Agri-Food Innovation, Bayer CropScience, Syngenta Canada Inc., Bradford Co-op Storage Ltd., Fresh Vegetable Growers of Ontario, and Pollinator Partnership, to whom without your assistance this project would not have been made possible. For the invaluable assistance over the past two years on this project from the installation and maintenance of the berm sites, to your support of berm day, technical advice and everything in between, I would like to thank Kevin Vander Kooi, Laura Riches, Zach Telfer, Tyler Blauel, Shawn Janse, and the rest of the Muck Crop Research Station staff. This project would not have been possible without the assistance and cooperation of several people. I would first like to thank my student field/lab assistants Claire Penstone, Brooke Freestone, Kaitlyn Raine, and Gavin Hossack for their hard work, and dedication to this project. I would like to thank the municipalities of Bradford West Gwillimbury, and King Township, the county of Simcoe, and the Lake Simcoe Regional Conservation Authority, especially Avia Eek for their support of this project. iv Thank you to Dr. Paul Hoekstra, for assistance in procuring native wildflower seed mix for our outreach day. To my lab mates, colleagues and friends in the Scott-Dupree, Hallett labs and around the university, thank you for your friendship and support in the ups and downs of this journey. A big thank you to Erika DeBrouwer for being one of the first friends I made in Guelph, you were always there when I needed someone to talk to and showed me the ropes at the Ranch. I would particularly like to thank my MSc partner in crime Alexandra Stinson-Dacey for always being there with a joke and a smile to keep me going. I want to especially thank Dr. Angela Gradish for her mentorship and support throughout my thesis. Angela, I am incredibly grateful for everything that you have done for me. You were always there to offer advice, assistance and support during my project through the good times and the bad ones. I will be forever indebted to you for your faith in me and everything that you helped me with. Thank you for being a friend! To my family, Keegan Muldoon, Mercedes Mueller, Brigid and John Witzke and baby Henry thank you for always being there to listen and provide encouragement to keep me pushing forward. To my good friend Emma Somerville, wow, who would have thought after meeting in the third year of undergrad we would both be finishing our masters now? I cannot thank you enough for being there for me through the ups and downs. From our late night facetimes to helping me at Bug Day you have always been there with your smile and encouraging words of wisdom. I am looking forward to what comes next and v I’m grateful that wherever it takes us both we will always have each other’s back. To my partner, Nick, thank you for patience with me, my stress and my moods during this final crunch, looking forward to what the future holds. Finally, a tremendous thank you to my parents, Jackie and Joe for supporting me and my goals. Mom and Dad, I cannot express how lucky I am to have such supportive and loving parents, who offer unwavering encouragement. I am eternally grateful for everything you do for me and the opportunities that you have given me. Without your love, guidance, support and encouragement I would not be the person I am today. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................vi List of Tables ...................................................................................................................ix List of Figures ..................................................................................................................xi List of Abbreviations .......................................................................................................xv CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................................... 1 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................... 1 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Enhancements of Uncultivated Habitat .................................................................. 4 1.2 Conservation Biological Control ............................................................................. 8 1.3 Primary Insect Pests and Natural Enemy Interactions at the Holland Marsh ......... 9 1.3.1 Insect Pests of the Holland Marsh ................................................................... 9 1.3.2 Natural Enemies of the Holland Marsh Pests ................................................ 14 1.4 Pollinator Conservation ........................................................................................ 19 1.4.1 Bees .............................................................................................................. 21 1.4.2 Other Pollinators ........................................................................................... 23 1.4.3 Monarch Butterflies ....................................................................................... 24 1.5 Summary and Objectives ..................................................................................... 26 vii CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................................. 28 SUPPORTING CONSERVATION BIOLOGICAL CONTROL IN THE HOLLAND MARSH, ONTARIO ....................................................................................................... 28 2.0 Abstract ............................................................................................................ 28 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 28 2.2 Materials and Methods ..................................................................................... 33 2.2.1 Berm Site Enhancements .......................................................................... 33 2.2.2 Berm Survey .............................................................................................. 37 2.2.3 Commercial Field Survey ........................................................................... 45 2.2.4 Parasitoid Collection – Carrot Root Sections ............................................. 46 2.3 Statistical Analysis ........................................................................................... 48 2.4 Results ............................................................................................................. 49 2.4.1 Berm Survey .............................................................................................. 49 2.4.2 Commercial Field Survey ........................................................................... 68 2.4.3 Parasitoid Collection – Carrot Root Sections ............................................