William D Hutchison

University of Minnesota Twin Cities | UMN · Department of Entomology

Economic Benefits of Bt Maize Maize containing a transgenically expressed toxin originating from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt maize) is planted across the United States to combat insect herbivory. Non-Bt Maize is also planted alongside Bt maize fields to provide refuges for the insects, which helps to prevent resistance to Bt maize from evolving. Hut...

Exclusion netting in some European and North American apple (Malus domestica Borkhausen, Rosaceae, Rosales) orchards has been documented to be an effective method of control for multiple insect pest species. By minimizing reliance on insecticides, these orchards have reduced costs, risks to the environment and non-target species, and reduced the ri...

Tools for quantifying nontarget pesticide risks have long been used for documenting the benefits of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs. One resource receiving little attention is the Pesticide Risk Tool (PRT), developed by the IPM Institute in Madison, WI. The PRT includes 15 indices and uses a probabilistic approach to assess the risk for t...

Insect migrations have ecological and economic impacts, particularly in agriculture. However, there is limited knowledge about the migratory movements of pests at the continental scale, which is an important factor influencing the spread of resistance genes. Understanding the migratory patterns of economic pests, like Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), is e...

As evidence of global insect declines continues to mount, insect conservationists are becoming increasingly interested in modeling the demographic history of at-risk species from long-term survey data. However, certain entomological survey methods may be susceptible to temporal biases that will complicate these efforts. Entomological light traps, i...

The Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica Newman (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), an invasive species from northern Japan, was first detected in Minnesota in 1968. According to fruit growers and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, population size and feeding damage has been an increasing concern since 2010. Based on trap-catch data, populations have r...

Helicoverpa zea. Photograph by E.S. Calixto /WFREC/UF. See https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvae034 pgs 487-497.

Corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) and fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) are major migratory pests of maize (Zea mays) in the United States and Mexico. They are primarily controlled in the United States with genetically engineered (GE) maize, while the 25-yr moratorium on cultivating GE maize in Mexico has forced growers to control these pests with...

It is commonly perceived that early defoliation of maize (Zea mays L.) is a significant risk for maximum grain yields. However, several studies designed to assess biotic and abiotic factors that reduce leaf area reported contrasting results. When maize suffers defoliation before developing its seventh leaf (V7 stage), plants can often compensate wi...

Apple orchards are highly managed agricultural ecosystems where growers typically rely on insecticides to minimize the risk of pest-related fruit losses. Apple growers practicing integrated pest management require cost-effective alternatives to conventional insecticides for control of major pests such as codling moth ( Cydia pomonella L.) and apple...

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and several Asian countries, maize continues to be a major staple food for millions of people. It plays an important role in food and nutrition security and as a source of income. Pests and diseases, however, are the primary biotic constraints to maize productivity in these countries. The recent invasion of the fall army...

Introduction The ability of living organisms to acquire the nutrients needed to carry out required physiological functions has important consequences for fitness. However, an organism must not simply meet the requirements for individual nutrients, but must ingest an optimal balance of multiple nutrients. Despite this, animals rarely consume truly b...

Nutrition provides the resources necessary to carry out all the physiological functions organisms require. This has important implications for insect pest management, as polyphagous species can experience considerable nutritional variability, which may impact their response to management tactics. Many studies have shown that dietary protein and car...

Transgenic corn and cotton that produce Cry and Vip3Aa toxins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are widely planted in the United States to control lepidopteran pests. The sustainability of these Bt crops is threatened because the corn earworm/bollworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), is evolving a resistance to these toxins. Using Bt sweet corn as...

Spotted-wing drosophila ( Drosophila suzukii ; SWD) is an invasive pest in the United States that is responsible for significant economic damage to soft-skinned fruit and berries worldwide. SWD uses a wide variety of cultivated and wild fruit for reproduction. Host suitability may depend on physical and chemical factors of the fruit, with a positiv...

This chapter will review current insect pest monitoring systems for native and invasive pest species of corn, soybean, and cotton in the U.S. We present case studies of European corn borer, corn earworm, western bean cutworm, and corn rootworm as pests of corn; soybean aphid, stink bugs, and Japanese beetle as pests of soybean; and tobacco thrips,...

Stem borers (Lepidoptera) are common cereal pests. In many parts of the world, the species Ostrinia nubilalis and Sesamia nonagrioides stand out as important insect pests of economically important crops such as maize. Their management relied mainly on transgenic host plant resistance over the last 25 years. Technologies based on the insecticidal pr...

Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica (Newman), was first detected in the United States in New Jersey in 1916. The beetle gradually spread to the Midwest U.S. region, and was first confirmed in Minnesota in the late 1960’s. Popillia japonica has subsequently become a major invasive insect pest in turfgrass and several agricultural crops. As P. japonic...

Engineered Genetic Incompatibility (EGI) is an engineered extreme underdominance genetic system wherein hybrid animals are not viable, functioning as a synthetic speciation event. There are several strategies in which EGI could be leveraged for genetic biocontrol of pest populations. We used an agent-based model of Drosophila suzukii (Spotted Wing...

Spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), is a significant, global invasive species first confirmed in the United States in 2008. Since the first detection in Minnesota in 2012, D. suzukii rapidly became a major economic pest of berry crops in the state. Effective monitoring of adult D. suzukii populations is a crucial aspect of deve...

Overwintering success is an important determinant of arthropod populations that must be considered as climate change continues to influence the spatiotemporal population dynamics of agricultural pests. Using a long-term monitoring database and biologically relevant overwintering zones, we modeled the annual and seasonal population dynamics of a com...

Understanding the fine-scale genome sequence diversity that exists within natural populations is important for developing models of species migration, temporal stability, and range expansion. For invasive species, agricultural pests, and disease vectors, sequence diversity at specific loci in the genome can impact the efficacy of next-generation ge...

BACKGROUND Over the past 14 years, the invasive vinegar fly, spotted‐wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii), has become one of the most damaging fruit pests in the United States. With regional economic losses estimated as high as $500 million for moderate infestations, D. suzukii control represents an often‐untenable cost to growers. Management relie...

In temperate climates, there has been an increasing interest by fruit growers to implement the use of high tunnels, using a variety of coverings, to extend the season for fruit production. High tunnels also provide an opportunity to enhance insect pest management, via physical exclusion, and thus support reductions in insecticide use. Due to increa...

BACKGROUND Invasive species threaten the productivity and stability of natural and managed ecosystems. Predicting the spread of invaders, which can aid in early mitigation efforts, is a major challenge, especially in the face of climate change. While ecological niche models are effective tools to assess habitat suitability for invaders, such models...

Tethered flight mills and free‐flight studies are two common approaches for examining insect flight behavior in the laboratory. Flight behavior studies are significant because they provide information with understanding dispersal and range expansion. Each approach has advantages and drawbacks and can influence the flight behavior of the study organ...

Although insecticide formulations and spray rates are optimized to achieve lethal exposure, there are many factors in agricultural settings that can reduce the effective exposure of insect pests. These include weather patterns, timing of application, chemical degradation/volatilization, plant structural complexity, and resistant populations. While...

The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), now is arguably the most important global insect pest of maize, Zea mays L., in the world. Maize growers in the Americas have battled the pest for centuries, and control recommendations have been adapted for Africa and Asia, based on contrasting results of the impact on yield when the pest infe...

Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica Newman, is an invasive insect, native to Japan. The species was detected in the United States in New Jersey in 1916, and then first confirmed in Minnesota in 1968. Since their arrival, P. japonica has become a major pest in turfgrass and several crop agroecosystems. As P. japonica continues to spread throughout th...

Cost-effective and reliable sampling procedures are crucial for integrated pest management. Sweep net sampling is commonly used for stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) in soybean, with sample size being the number of sets of sweeps, and sample unit size the number of sweeps in each set. Sample unit size has received little attention, but can affec...

Popillia japonica (Newman), is a highly polyphagous, invasive species, first recorded in the U.S. in 1916, and detected in Minnesota in the late 1960s. Historically, research on this pest in the Midwest U.S. has focused primarily on ornamental and turf crops, with little attention placed on adult feeding damage to fruit crops. Recently, wine grape...

Minnesota is the state with the strongest winter warming in the contiguous United States. We performed regional climate projections at 10 km horizontal resolution using the Weather Research Forecasting model forced with eight CMIP5 GCMs. The selected GCMs have previously been found to be in relatively good agreement with observations over Minnesota...

Discusses the role of GM crops in Integrated Pest management and the development of sustainable agricultural systems.

Spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii , has become one of the most widely studied insect species over the last decade, largely due to its recent invasion and rapid expansion across the Americas and Europe. Unlike other drosophilid species, which colonize rotting fruit, SWD females possess a serrated ovipositor that allows them to lay eg...

Grape phylloxera, Daktulosphaira vitifoliae Fitch (Hemiptera: Phylloxeridae), is an important pest that forms galls on the foliage and roots of Vitis species. The effects of grape phylloxera on grape root have been studied extensively. This study investigated the effects of the foliar form of grape phylloxera, which is a persistent pest of North Am...

The egg parasitoid Trissolcus japonicus is a natural enemy of Halyomorpha halys , a polyphagous invasive pest in Europe and North and South America. Integration of chemical and biological control tactics could facilitate effective and sustainable integrated pest management programs. This study was conducted to assess (i) the lethal effects of field...

Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae), or spotted-wing drosophila, is an invasive pest first detected in the United States in 2008. Although D. suzukii can use many cultivated fruit as hosts, raspberries are considered 'most at risk' for infestation. Conventional broad-spectrum insecticides are proven effective D. suzukii controls a...

Stink bugs represent an increasing risk to soybean production in the Midwest region of the United States. The current sampling protocol for stink bugs in this region is tailored for population density estimation and thus is more relevant to research purposes. A practical decision-making framework with more efficient sampling effort for management o...

The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is an invasive species to North America and has spread throughout most of the territory. Understanding flight in H. halys is crucial to understanding the dispersal capacity and developing forecasting models for this pest. The purpose of this research was to assess t...

In the Asian corn borer (ACB), Ostrinia furnacalis (Guenée), diapause is governed by a multigenetic constitution that responds to daylength and temperature with seasonality. The ACB displays uni- or multivoltinism, depending on its geographic specificity. Hence, warmer temperatures may result in alternation of voltinism in the ACB, which will help...

As part of an insect resistance management plan to preserve Bt transgenic technology, annual monitoring of target pests is mandated to detect susceptibility changes to Bt toxins. Currently Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) monitoring involves investigating unexpected injury in Bt crop fields and collecting larvae from non-Bt host plants for laboratory diet...

Given that plant nutrient content is both spatially and temporally dynamic (Lenhart et al., 2015; Deans et al., 2016, 2018), insect herbivores are exposed to an incredible amount of nutritional variability. This variability can constrain insects to feeding on sub-optimal resources, but it can also provide an opportunity for insects to regulate thei...

Tomato is known to be among the most affected crops for several Frankliniella schultzei transmitted tospoviruses that cause extensive economic losses worldwide. Despite the importance of this insect as a vector in tomato, no research-based economic thresholds or sampling plans have been developed for use in integrated pest management (IPM) programs...

Temperature is a critical single factor influencing insect population dynamics, and is foundational for improving our understanding of the phenology of invasive species adapting to new agroecosystems or in the process of range expansion. An age-stage, two-sex life table was therefore developed to analyze fundamental demographic features such as dev...

Temperate insect species often enter diapause in preparation for overwintering. One such species is the invasive vinegar fly, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), which has seasonal polymorphisms, considered winter and summer morphs. To date, the morphs have been differentiated by color and size with winter morphs typically being darker and larger compa...

Reliable monitoring of the invasive Halyomorpha halys abundance, phenology and geographic distribution is critical for its management. Halyomorpha halys adult and nymphal captures on clear sticky traps and in black pyramid traps were compared in 18 states across the Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Pacific Northwest and Western regions of the...

Spotted-wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii; SWD) is an economically important insect pest of small and soft skinned fruit. Female SWD use a heavily sclerotized ovipositor to deposit eggs in ripening fruit. After emergence from eggs, larval feeding and development damages fruit and results in yield loss. The most prevalent management strategy conti...

Spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), an economically damaging invasive species of numerous fruit crops, was first detected in Minnesota in 2012. High fecundity, and short generation times facilitated a rapid rise in the global pest status of D. suzukii, particularly in North America and Europe. To date, the majority of crop inju...

Grape phylloxera, Daktulosphaira vitifoliae Fitch (Hemiptera: Phylloxeridae), is a growing pest concern in the Midwest United States due to the increased planting of cold-hardy hybrid grape varieties such as ‘Frontenac’. Grape phylloxera is native to North America and has been distributed to other viticultural regions of the world. In terms of foli...

Minnesota was dubbed the 'raspberry consumption capital of America' in 2017 by wholesaler Driscoll's, Inc. Local production of this high-demand fruit, however, is limited by the invasive pest, spotted wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii Matsumura, Diptera: Drosophilidae). Recent research to develop integrated pest management (IPM) programs for MN b...

Zaprionus indianus Gupta (Diptera: Drosophilidae), also known as the African fig fly, is native to the tropical regions of Africa. Zaprionus indianus can be identified by the even number of conspicuous silvery stripes outlined in black on the dorsal side of the head and thorax. In this report, we provide confirmation of the first detections of Z. i...

Helicoverpa armigera Hubner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is one of the most economically important agricultural pests of chickpea in Asia and Africa. Though most of the H. armigera biology was studied on chickpea, yet better understanding on fababean was still important. The present study was conducted to better understand the life cycle of H. armigera...

Elemental data are commonly used to infer plant quality as a resource to herbivores. However, the ubiquity of carbon in biomolecules, the presence of nitrogen-containing plant defensive compounds, and variation in species-specific correlations between nitrogen and plant protein content all limit the accuracy of these inferences. Additionally, resea...

Diapause and cold tolerance can profoundly affect the distribution and activity of temperate insects. Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), an alien invasive species from Asia, enters a winter dormancy in response to environmental cues. We investigated the nature of this dormancy and its effects on H. halys cold tolerance, as measured...