Jumping Worm Outreach Activity | IPM and Pollinator Conservation

Advisory Committee

We will convene an Advisory committee once a year from state agencies, parks, commodity groups (MNLA, MGCSA, Mulch Council), Master Gardeners, and nurseries. Names are suggestions and have not been contacted yet.
JWORM Working Group, at Cornell University with researchers from Colgate, Cornell, Yale NYISRI, SUNY Cortland, UW Madison, and applying for membership UM.
MNLA, Bailey Nurseries, Sargent's Nursery; collaborators on pot and field study
Erin Buchholz, IPM specialist, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Kaitlin Ryan, manager, Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, Lake Harriet Rose Garden; collaborator on pot and field study
U.S. Composting Council
Laura Van Riper, MN DNR, Terrestrial invasive species management
Mark Abrahamson, MDA Exotic invasive species management
Angie Gupta, University of Minnesota Extension, Forestry
Julie Wisenhorn, University of Minnesota Extension, Horticulture
Lee Frelich, Professor, University of Minnesota, Forestry
MN Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), regulates composting sites
UM Extension, Master Gardener and Master Naturalist member

Outreach and Dissemination

The ultimate goal, through research and outreach, is reducing the spread of JW in native ecosystems, public and private landscapes, and nurseries. There are currently no effective options for controlling JW on a small- or large-scale, a serious research need. Thus, research on viable IPM options are desperately needed. Outreach programs will disseminate the research findings through in-person presentations, yearly workshops, online educational programs (workshops, videos), websites, articles in journals published by conservation agencies (MN BWSR, MDA, DNR, MN Conservationist, etc.), nursery and landscape associations (MNLA, MGSA), home gardens (MN State Hort Soc.), composite sites (county), as well as newspapers, radio, and television.

The proposed research will focus on developing IPM strategies, including cultural tactics such as solarization and biorational chemicals (tea seed meal, beneficial fungi, spinosad, and mustard drenches) to reduce the spread of invasive JW, which are detrimental to plant health in MN forests and parklands.

Research will demonstrate that these IPM tactics are safe to beneficial insects, such as soil-dwelling bees and decomposers. Outreach educational programs with mulch producers, park managers, landscapers, and nursery managers will spread the awareness of the threat of JW and how to manage them with IPM. An Advisory Committee will help disseminate reaching findings.

Research data will be used to develop IPM programs for JW management and will be disseminated to nursery and landscape professionals, as well as the general public. The ultimate goal is reducing the spread of JW to other nurseries, public and private landscapes and gardens, and native ecosystems. IPM strategies for controlling JW are desperately needed and particularly strategies that are focused on the safest and most effective methods of control, given that nurseries are confined spaces and toxic pesticides can pose risks to the environment and human health. There are currently no effective options available for controlling JW on a small- or large-scale, and it is hoped that the results of the proposed research will be immediately applicable to the development of standard IPM protocols for JW. Before initiating the research, the PIs and Post Docs will have a zoom, online meeting with Dr. Christy Palmer, the Horticulture Program Manager, USDA IR4 program, to optimize our protocols, for data collection, to support new pesticide labels for managing JW. Tea seed meal, which is a currently labelled as a soil amendment, needs a pesticide label. We will work with IR4 to identify a business that could work with USDA and EPA to approve tea seed meal as a pesticide.

Our lab and the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association (MNLA) will provide in-kind service as staff hours, to disseminate the research results and educate nursery and landscape professionals and consumers in the Horticulture Industries through bulletins, in-person presentations, online educational programs (workshops, videos), and articles in the MNLA trade journal The SCOOP. We will host a JW Research Workshop online, from which videos will be made, and presented in an online MNLA educational program. A before and after survey will assess the effect of the educational workshop on knowledge gained and changes in management based on the UM Extension Service metrics for program assessment.

The MNLA and UM will host an annual online zoom meeting to update the advisory board and MNLA members on research and solicit input. Members will include the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association (MNLA), Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB), Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA), Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), experts at the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, and MN Extension among others, to optimize the research findings and ensure that the proposed IPM strategies are relevant to current nursery and landscape practices.

Controlling JW populations in the nursey and landscape sectors will help mitigate a primary pathway involved in the spread of JW and their introduction into natural areas. The IPM strategies that will be determined by this proposed research will improve management choices, the appropriate rates of control products, and the correct number and timing of chemical applications. We are aware of the other research sponsored at UMN on JW in forested areas being conducted by Dr. Frelich’s lab at the UM Forestry Department. Our proposal is concerned with the movement of JW in soil from nursery products that could potentially contaminate forested areas and landscapes, and reducing the potential for such introductions. These proposals are significantly different in their scope.