ifoam'96 Book of Abstracts 11th IFOAM Scientific Conference 11-15 August 1996, Copenhagen, Denmark

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The Cereal Leaf Beetle and its Regulation E19

L.-Boltzmann-Institute for Biological Agriculture and Applied Ecology, A-1110 Vienna, Austria

Since pesticides have largely been banned in organic agriculture (see Regulation 2092/91 of the EC), plant protection here depends largely on preventive measures and enhancement of self- regulatory processes. The cereal leaf beetle CLB (Oulema melanopus L., Chrysomelidae) causes increasing damage in organic oat and wheat fields in Eastern Austria. The effectiveness of preventive measures (choise of cultivar, compost fertilization) and antagonists in reducing the CLB damage have been investigated in an organic farm at Obere Lobau, Vienna. Several cultivars of wheat (1994-1996) and oats (1995 only) were tested on CLB susceptibility. Over the years, certain wheat cultivars showed constant differences in CLB susceptibility, although the general infestation levels differed from year to year. In a plot trial, fertilization regimes (compost, inorganic fertilizers and combinations of both) were investigated in wheat (1995) and oats (1996) towards their effects on CLB population dynamics and feeding damage. Differences between CLB infestations occured, but mostly on a non-significant level. CLB egg-parazitation rates of achalcidoid wasp (very likely Anaphes flavipes) up to 90 % were measured in wheat fields. The results of this research will be transferred to the practice of organic grain production in Austria.