Researcher: Adam Brunke, M.Sc. Candidate
Supervisor: Dr. Rebecca Hallett and Dr. Steve Marshall, Department of Environmental Biology, University of Guelph
Summary
Soybean aphids are a significant pest in the agricultural sector but spend a significant amount of nocturnal time on buckthorn; an invasive shrub found in most woodlots and agricultural hedgerows in southern Ontario. The predators of soybean aphids on buckthorn are unknown. Adam is studying a group of insects known as rove beetles who are only active at night and have been the focus of several aphid management studies in Europe where they have been found to be natural predators of cereal aphids. His goal is to identify the rove beetle species present in habitats at rare, compare their daily activity to the daily activity cycle of soybean aphids and determine the habitats with the highest densities of both groups of organisms. He will also compare the lengths of their activity periods and the timing of their first arrival on the sites as well as compare the relatively protected rare sites with other sites off the property. This research could eventually lead to an alternate method of pest control that will allow farmers to reduce the volume of insecticides on their crops while maintaining crop yields.