Novel Microbial Tools and Tactics for Cutworm Control in Wine Grapes

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The Institute for Sustainable Horticulture (ISH), at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), and AndermattCanada Inc., will partner to explore the most efficacious and sustainable strategy for the management of winter climbing cutworms, with emphasis on the invasive Noctua comes, and determine if some of the same strategiescould be effective against the related invasive polyphagous cutworm, Noctua pronuba. This project builds on work by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (2006-13) and ISH (2018-21) in partnership with the Wine Grape industry to develop biological solutions for climbing cutworm pests. Four promising categories of biocontrol tools, including insect baculoviruses, two pre-commercial fungal species (Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium rileyi), an entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema feltiae, as well as a parasitoid wasp, Trichogramma sp., will be employed to develop the management strategy for the complex of cutworms in vineyards in theOkanagan Valley of BC. This project will advance previous research by carrying out three years of field trials at a commercial vineyard. In the first year, the cutworm complex at a participating organic vineyard will bestudied to understand their distribution pattern and species composition at the site and to select trial plots for subsequent years. In years 2 and 3, the biocontrol tools will be used in a coordinated strategy to timeapplications to the appropriate pest stage and habitat. By incorporating biocontrol tools with different modes ofaction, and targeted to different life stages, growers will have a program to manage cutworm populations in a sustainable manner; thereby reducing the use of pesticides on grapevines and combating pests resistance. The data and results of this project will accelerate the registration and commercialization of new microbialinsecticide(s) by Andermatt Canada Inc. for Canadian growers.