05/25/1993

BCI Enlisting Biological Control to Fight Pests

AUBURN, Ala. - If you want to beat 'em, enlist 'em.

That's the premise behind the Biological Control Institute (BCI), an organization based at Auburn University with the goal of finding environmentally friendly ways to combat pests.

According to Paul Backman, director of the Institute, the BCI is an interdisciplinary, science-based organization that is exploring biologically-based controls for various pests. The Institute, which was inaugurated in 1992, consists of agronomists, molecular biologists, foresters, botanists, entomologists, microbiologists and plant pathologists. These scientists are pooling their expertise to help find natural weapons and processes to control plant pests. Included in this arsenal of natural allies are beneficial bacteria, fungi or insects that can help control harmful insects, weeds and plant diseases.

One catalyst for this effort was the increasing pressure on agriculture to reduce chemical usage. Biological control is one way to provide natural nonpolluting alternatives to traditional chemical controls.

However, Backman noted that the BCI's efforts also will benefit all citizens who want an abundant food supply and also a wholesome environment.

"Auburn University has recognized that current pest control methods are under attack from numerous consumer groups and governmental agencies," said Backman. "In order for Alabama and the rest of the nation to be prepared for the loss of many of our chemical pesticides, we will have to develop alternative strategies.

"Auburn has a long history in the biological control of plant pests," he continued, "and the pressing need for this type of research has led to the creation of the BCI, both to foster its continued development and also to assure that Auburn will be competitive with any other research facility in the nation for both federal and industrial funding."

"This should assure that the interests of our state's agricultural and urban communities are well served when our pest control practices are required to change," he added.

Paul Parks, vice president for research at Auburn, noted that the concept for the BCI actually was conceived more than 10 years ago.

"In the early to mid 1980s, Auburn made a major commitment to bring our plant sciences to a higher level of research activity and increase the quality of work we were doing in plant science," he said.

According to Parks, the BCI is the result of that commitment and involves scientists working through the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and in Auburn's College of Agriculture, College of Science and Mathematics and School of Forestry.

"The BCI is a classic example of a team approach to problem solving in agriculture," noted Lowell Frobish, director of the Experiment Station. "By bringing together expertise from several schools and colleges, the BCI is ideally structured to solve a broad range of problems on many crops."

BCI supported research already has provided impressive biological control inventions. One such invention is an emulsifier designed to apply weed-destroying fungi. The fungi is a naturally occurring fungus that is harmful to sicklepod, a common weed in soybeans, cotton, peanuts and other row crops. Spores from the fungi are placed in the emulsion with water, which allows the fungus to germinate and infect the weeds.

The emulsifier is expected to work with most herbicidal fungi and the product already has received two patents and has a third one pending.

Another breakthrough in biological control at Auburn is the development of a way to sustain and grow beneficial microbial agents by providing a food source that can stick to the surface of leaves. This is the first significant system for biocontrol agents of foliage diseases.

This procedure involves mixing chitin, cellulose and other complex carbohydrates in a spray that is applied to plants. The spray will feed beneficial microorganisms and contains and oil that helps anchor the food to the plant so rain or irrigation water will not wash off the food.

Research has shown that this substance increases the numbers of beneficial microbes on leaves by 50 to 300 percent. It can be used to nurture 40-50 beneficial bacteria or fungi, which in turn can help control such diseases as early blight on potatoes, leafspot on peanuts, fly speck and sooty blotch on apples and several diseases affecting tomatoes.

Other biological control methods developed at Auburn include using beneficial bacteria and fungi to control aflatoxin, one of the most powerful natural carcinogens known; a beneficial microbe that is being used to inoculate cabbage against black rot disease, a devastating disease of cabbage and other cool-season vegetables; inoculating seed against root diseases; and using microbes to kill kudzu and other harmful plants without harming crops.

Insects also have been enlisted in the biological control effort. For example a parasitic wasp and earwigs are being used to control lesser cornstalk borers and earwigs also are used to defend against corn earworm and fall armyworm. And nematodes are being recruited as a new biological weapon to combat cockroaches in homes.

Backman noted that these are just a few of the projects underway via the BCI, and the scope of the BCI's work is ever expanding.

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu
Contact Katie Jackson, 334-844-5886 or smithcl@auburn.edu

May 25, 1993