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Tracking aphids with eggs
May 28, 2008 By USDA Agricultural Research Service
May 28, 2008, Wapato, Wash. – Researchers in the U.S. have developed a new marking technique for tracking aphids.
May 28, 2008, Wapato, Wash. – The green peach aphid, despite its name, is a pest of potatoes. Besides siphoning off juices from potato plants, the aphid can infect the plants with viruses that cause an estimated $100 million annually in yield losses.
Non-winged green peach aphid. Photo courtesy of OMAFRA |
Unruh devised the technique to support studies to determine whether virus-carrying aphids are flying into potato fields from nearby weed patches. Existing methods of capturing and marking the dash-sized pests have been difficult and unreliable, according to Unruh.
His solution involved mixing egg-white proteins with water to create a solution that can be sprayed onto potato plants or associated weeds like nightshade. Aphids pick up the egg proteins while crawling over treated areas. To track them, Unruh relies on wide-mesh screens secured below a teepee-like scaffold that can be placed in or near potato fields. An adhesive holds the aphids so they can be returned to the laboratory for analysis using an immunological assay, which employs antibodies to detect egg proteins if they're present.
In fields near Wapato, more than 50 per cent of green peach aphids that contacted treated potato plants tested positive for egg proteins. More field tests are under way.
Read more about this research online.
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