Field and laboratory research demonstrates mole cricket population suppression using imported natural enemies, suggesting viable classical biological control.
Three species of Scapteriscus, accidentally introduced into the southern United States about 1900 from southern South America, are now important pests especially of turf and pasture grasses. Research at the University of Florida investigates control of these pests by natural enemies imported from South America, and also by some native natural enemies. Brazilian isolates of the fungal pathogens Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) and Metarhizium anisopliae (Metchnikoff) show virulence against Scapteriscus spp. in the laboratory. An undescribed neoaplectanid nematode from Uruguay has been released in Florida and has persisted in the field in small plots where numbers of Scapteriscus have declined over three years. Asphecid wasp, Larra bicolor E, originally from Brazil, now has an established population in southern Florida. A tachinid fly,Euphasiopteryx depleta (Wiedemann), from Brazil, and a bombardier beetle, Pheropsophus aequinoctialis (L.), from Uruguay, Brazil, and Bolivia, are under evaluation. A complex of native predators appears to contribute to mortality of immature Scapteriscus in the field.
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Hudson et al. (1988) studied this question.
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