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Narrator: University of Georgia scientists are counting on a
tiny wasp to save the popular Gerbera daisy from an insect
that finds its leaves tasty.
A member of the sunflower family, Gerbera daisies come in a variety
of colors like yellow,
pink,
orange,
white
and red.
It is widely grown for the cut flower market and as an ornamental plant.
The pest that's attacking it, the leaf miner, does just that.
Cheri Abraham: As an adult, the female leaf miner lays an egg
in each of these leaves; maybe more than one egg depending on
the size of the leaf.
Once the egg hatches, a larva develops out of it
and they slowly tunnel through the leaf.
Narrator: The leaf miner’s feeding pattern makes the leaves variegated
and growers are left with plants that are unsellable for the potted-plant market.
Abraham: Talking about Gerbera daisies, when the photosynthetic part is
decreased that reduces the production. When the stippling on the stem increase
or when the leaf miner adults feed on the stem, the length of the stem reduces.
If you were to sell Gerbera daisies, they need a minimum length for the
stem and the flowers should be in pristine condition.
You wouldn’t pay money to buy a leaf that is all crinkled and brown.
What the leaf miner does is it harms the flower, the plant.
Narrator: Chemical control is difficult as immature leaf miners live inside the leaves.
Having been in the U.S. since the early 1960s, the pest has
built up resistance to many chemical control methods.
UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences entomologists
are looking at several options for controlling the pest.
In greenhouses on the UGA campus in Griffin, Georgia,
graduate student Cheri Abraham is introducing a leaf miner's parasitoid.
This tiny wasp is a natural way to control the leaf miner.
Dr. Kris Braman: Biological control simply means using one organism
to control another living organism.
Biological control of our leaf miners can be accomplished by using
commercially available parasitic wasps.
These wasps are released into the greenhouse and they lay their eggs
inside the immature stage of the leaf miner; which is in turn, inside the leaves.
Narrator: Abraham is also studying characteristics of Gerbera daisies
that the leaf miner doesn't like, such as the tiny hairs on the plant's stem and waxy leaves.
Braman: The point of the project is to try to find alternative means to control this
whole group of pests on Gerbera daisies so that we can keep a sustainable biological
control program in place for managing leaf miners on Gerbera daisies.
Narrator: For more information on UGA CAES programs,
see the college’s website at www.caes.uga.edu