Nicole Quinn, assistant professor of entomology and nematology and expert in biological control at the UF/IFAS Indian River Research and Education Center (IRREC), was awarded a farm bill grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help launch a classical biological control program in Florida for Amrasca biguttula, also known as cotton jassid or two-spot cotton
leafhopper.
The program will be a collaborative project between IRREC’s Hayslip Biological Control Research and Containment Lab, Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (FDACS) and Isaac Esquivel, assistant professor of entomology at the UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center (NFREC).
The project’s goal is to help discover specialized natural enemies for cotton jassid, which are insects that have recently become an invasive species across Florida. It’s already a well-known, severe pest in countries like India, where it has impacted cotton plants.
“Cotton jassid will also significantly impact okra and other vegetables,” Quinn said. “It will also attack ornamental plants, so it’s pretty problematic.”
There is currently not much information about how to manage cotton jassid since it was recently discovered in Florida. Since cotton jassid is now causing serious damage to Florida, there is a continued concern within the scientific community that it will spread and continue to impact agricultural commodities, she said.
She said the goal is to reduce the impact of the invasive species, along with reducing its population.
“Hopefully, that will mean we won’t have to spray as many insecticides or have as many crop losses,” she said.
A part of this project will involve the team traveling abroad to Japan, Guam and other parts of the Pacific to look for natural enemies that can help contain cotton jassid. They will be brought back to the lab and quarantined so they can’t escape.
Those natural enemies will then be studied in the lab to make sure they’re compatible and safe for Florida’s environment. Once they collect data over time on what they eat and attack, the team would have to get clearance from both the state and federal government in order to release the natural enemy into the environment.
Cotton jassid’s impact on the state’s environment includes making plants less productive, which can impact crops like cotton, ornamentals, okra and other vegetables. “It basically feeds on the plants and can damage or kill them,” she said.
The reason why they plan to go to Japan and Guam to find natural enemies is because there are already scientists there who are familiar with the insects and some of the natural enemies.
She said they’ll provide good support for them as they go there and try to understand the insects better and locate them.
One factor that can play a part in the project is environmental differences of the destinations their work will be occurring. She said insects are sensitive to temperature and humidity for their development.
“Even if you find a natural enemy that’s excellent at attacking your target pest, if it can’t handle high humidity, it’s obviously not going to do very well in Florida, right? So finding those perfect matches is key where everything lines up,” she said.
Quinn enjoys the challenge of being able to help growers and stakeholders. It involves looking for something and not necessarily knowing exactly what you’re looking for or where it is.
“I think it’s a very unique field and the challenges that it poses and these new natural enemies that you find, there’s nothing known about them a lot of the time,” she said.
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