Location: Vegetable Research
Project Number: 6659-22000-018-00
Start Date: Aug 10, 2005
End Date: Aug 09, 2010
Identify sources of resistance and determine heritability of resistance against sweetpotato whiteflies in melon and watermelon, and against soil insect pests of sweetpotatoes; facilitate incorporation of resistance into advanced sweetpotato breeding lines and new cultivars; determine chemical and physical mechanisms of resistance in sweetpotato to soil insect pests; investigate the influence of leguminous host plants on parasitoids of whiteflies; survey predators in South Carolina for biological control agents for whiteflies; determine overwintering ability of whitefly predator Delphastus catalinae; establish food preferences of predator Engytatus modestus; assess the use of baculoviruses for control of pickleworms, melonworms, and soil pests of sweetpotatoes; develop trapping methods for pickleworm moths, melonworm moths, sweetpotato weevils, Diabrotica spp., and whiteflies using pheromones and kairomones; evaluate alternative cropping systems for sweetpotatoes and other vegetables; and evaluate LED-modified traps for whitefly control.