10 CapitalPress.com
July 14, 2017
Idaho
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Mormon crickets on the march in parts of Idaho
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
NAMPA, Idaho — Mor-
mon crickets, which can dev-
astate farm fi elds in short or-
der during infestations, are on
the march in parts of Idaho.
Owyhee County vineyard
owner Tom Elias said the
harsh winter ruined about 85
percent of his wine grape crop
in Marsing this year “and then
(a few) weeks ago I had Mor-
mon crickets come through
and they fi nished it off.”
Elias has dealt with the
pest in past years but never to
this extent.
“Those suckers are huge
this year; the biggest ones
I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I
woke up one morning to my
house, my car, my tractor,
greenhouse, everything, cov-
ered in Mormon crickets. And
they eat everything in sight.”
The Idaho State Depart-
ment of Agriculture, which
handles Mormon cricket
problems on state land — and
private ground when asked —
— has received a lot of calls
in the past two weeks about
the pest, said ISDA Plant In-
dustries Administrator Lloyd
Knight.
“It’s plenty busy right
At a glance
Online
Mormon cricket (Anabrus simplex)
Go to the ISDA website at
www.agri.idaho.gov and click
on “Plants & Insects” on the
left and then on “Grasshopper
and Mormon Cricket Control
Program.”
These insects are actually a shield-backed katydid. The common
name is derived from this pest’s destruction of the crops of Mormon
settlers in the mid-1800s.
Appearance: 1.5 to 2 inches long (adult phase). Varied color from gray
green, purplish, brown to black. Hind tibiae are spiny; its wings are under-
developed and it cannot fly.
Behavior: One generation annually; outbreaks can last 5 to 10 years. Vast
bands will migrate up to 50 miles, feeding on field and forage crops, fruit
trees, vineyards and grains.
Range: Found throughout Western
Courtesy of U.S.
North America.
Geological Survey
Habitat: Areas of rangeland shrubs,
forbs and grasses.
Damage:
Voracious
eaters, Mormon
crickets have
powerful
mandibles that
can strip trees
of foliage and
destroy their
fruit.
Source: Washington State University
now,” he said. “Things are
a lot busier than they were a
few weeks ago.”
Knight said the Mormon
cricket infestations this year
are location-specifi c. The de-
partment has received a lot of
calls from people in Washing-
ton, Gem and Owyhee coun-
ties.
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
The USDA’s Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Ser-
vice controls Mormon cricket
infestations on federal lands.
“We are seeing signifi -
cantly higher Mormon crick-
et populations on (Bureau
of Land Management) land
and a small amount of Forest
Service land in southwestern
USDA photo by Paul Ver Hagen
Mormon crickets cross a road near Reynolds Creek in Owyhee
County in southwestern Idaho.
Idaho this year and we are re-
ceiving more complaints from
neighboring landowners as
a result,” Brian Marschman,
who heads the APHIS plant
health program in Idaho, told
Capital Press in an email.
He said Owyhee and
Washington counties have the
highest populations this year.
“In a few locations we have
seen populations as high as 70
per square yard,” he said.
APHIS has treated about
500 acres of BLM land in
Owyhee County this year but
hasn’t been able to treat larg-
er tracts because of the higher
than usual amount of water in
the area and the presence of
sensitive species, Marschman
said.
“We have seen the level
of complaints drop after our
limited treatments, though,”
he said.
Marschman said there is
no clear explanation why
Mormon cricket populations
are much higher this year.
Surveys in 2016 indicated an
uptick from record low popu-
lations from 2012 to 2015.
“However, cricket infes-
tations at this level were not
expected,” he added.
Marschman said his agen-
cy has not seen or heard about
high grasshopper numbers
anywhere in the state.
The ISDA, when asked,
distributes bait free of charge
to private landowners with
more than 5 acres of farm-
land. The department distrib-
uted 89,000 pounds of bait to
138 landowners last year for
Mormon cricket and grass-
hopper suppression.
Researchers test sterile litchi tomato as nematode ‘trap crop’
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
ABERDEEN, Idaho —
Researchers are conducting
fi eld trials with a new, sterile
version of litchi tomato — a
“trap crop” that stimulates
hatching of destructive pale
cyst nematodes in the absence
of a viable host.
PCN, a microscopic worm
that can survive in soil for
decades without a host and
dramatically reduces pota-
to yields, was discovered in
Eastern Idaho in 2006. A 7.5-
mile radius of Bonneville and
Bingham counties — the only
location in the U.S. where
the pest is known to exist
— is under quarantine while
USDA and the Idaho State
Department of Agriculture
work to eradicate it.
In recent years, University
of Idaho has used litchi toma-
to as an alternative control
method to methyl bromide,
a powerful fumigant that has
been phased out of the erad-
ication program for environ-
mental reasons.
But use of litchi tomato has
been strictly monitored and
special protocols have been
established to destroy viable
seeds to prevent the trap crop
from spreading and becoming
a new weed in the area.
“We feel great about this
because it answers concerns
that this could become a weed
itself by escaping out in the
fi eld,” University of Idaho
Extension weed scientist Pam
Hutchinson said.
Due to a shortage of litchi
tomato seed, only one quar-
antined commercial fi eld has
been planted in litchi toma-
to this summer. Hutchinson
transplanted about 2,000 of
Contributed photo
A potato psyllid.
‘Hot’ potato
psyllid
confi rmed in
Power County
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
University of Idaho Extension weed scientist Pam Hutchinson shows a plot of sterile litchi tomato on July 6. The trap crop, used to control
pale cyst nematode, was transplanted at the UI’s Aberdeen Research and Extension Center.
the new sterile litchi tomato
seedlings into a plot within the
trap crop fi eld. Hutchinson has
been pleased by the health of
the sterile plants in the com-
mercial plot, as well as in a
demonstration plot in Aber-
deen.
“The main reason why we
transplanted them down here
was to make sure they could
grow in our conditions in a
quarantined fi eld near Shel-
ley,” Hutchinson said.
Chuck Brown, a research
geneticist with USDA’s Ag-
ricultural Research Service
in Prosser, Wash., developed
a litchi tomato seed without
prickles from European vari-
eties. Joe Kuhl, a UI associate
professor of plant genetics,
generated sterile litchi toma-
to from Brown’s seed. Kuhl
explained he used laboratory
methods to induce a litchi to-
mato variety with two sets of
chromosomes, called a dip-
loid, to have four sets of chro-
mosomes, called a tetraploid.
He then conventional-
ly crossed the diploid with
the tetraploid and identifi ed
progeny with three sets of
chromosomes, which are ster-
ile.
Kuhl will likely use labora-
tory tissue cultures to expand
sterile litchi tomato for com-
mercial planting.
He said the challenge will
be producing enough seedlings
while keeping costs down.
“We are using a series of
experimental protocols to de-
termine whether the scaling up
can be coupled with cost-sav-
ing measures,” Kuhl said.
In commercial fi eld testing
by UI’s PCN program director,
Louise-Marie Dandurand, li-
tchi tomato reduced PCN eggs
by 45 percent and cyst multi-
plication by 75 percent.
Hutchinson has also con-
ducted herbicide trials in li-
tchi tomato, identifying three
products that help control
weeds without harming the
trap crop.
AMERICAN FALLS, Ida-
ho — A potato psyllid recently
collected from a sticky trap at
a Power County potato fi eld
has tested positive for the Li-
beribacter bacterium, which
causes zebra chip disease.
According to an alert sent
July 7 to growers, a Universi-
ty of Idaho scouting program
captured 31 psyllids from
sticky cards during the preced-
ing week. Psyllids were found
in 20 of 95 fi elds involved in
the university’s program.
Another psyllid captured at
UI’s Kimberly Research and
Extension Center also tested
positive for Liberibacter in early
June.
Experts say psyllid pressure
has been light this year com-
pared to last summer, though
little zebra chip disease surfaced
in the 2016 potato crop.
Zebra chip disease creates
bands in tuber fl esh that dark-
en during frying. The disease,
spread by the tiny, winged psyl-
lids, was fi rst confi rmed in the
Northwest during 2011. The
UI program is intended to alert
growers of the presence of psyl-
lids harboring Liberibacter to
guide their insecticide spray-
ing decisions.
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