Dissertation
AN INVESTIGATION OF CHEMICAL CONTROL TECHNIQUES FOR POLISTES PAPER WASPS
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000003165
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/122494
Abstract
In areas with large paper wasp populations, species of Polistes can disrupt human activities such as outdoor recreation, forestry operations, and agricultural work. Researchers have developed many effective methods for trapping and controlling yellowjacket wasps but these strategies rarely work when applied to paper wasps. Elmquist and Landolt (2018) hypothesized that Polistes could learn and respond to volatile cues they encountered while foraging. Their study tested the associative learning of three chemicals (pear ester, 3-methyl-1-butanol, and eugenol) by the European Paper Wasp, Polistes dominula (Christ, 1791). They showed that P. dominula could associate a unique odor with a food reward and predicted that this behavior could lead to the development of a “train-and-trap” strategy for controlling paper wasps. The purpose of this study was to build upon the work of Elmquist and Landolt (2018) using similar assay techniques. In Chapter 1, we tested the associative learning behavior of P. dominula and P. exclamans Viereck, 1906 and expanded the scope of research to include testing the four wasp castes independently (fall gynes, workers, spring queens, and males). We also re-tested the ability of the wasps to learn the odor of pear ester and added two new plant-based volatiles to the experiment, α-pinene and β-myrcene. Results show that wasps exhibit higher rates of attraction in a flight tunnel to piped odors following previous experience with that odor, compared to wasps with no prior experience. However, when a field cage choice experiments were performed, no differences were found between control and treatment groups. This experiment strongly suggests associative learning behavior in queens and workers, but not in fall gynes and males. During this study, several Polistes wasps died after consuming sugar water with a 1% infusion of pear ester. In Chapter 2, we performed a study to investigate the toxicity of consumed pear ester by P. dominula at several concentrations. Three wasp castes were used in this experiment (fall gynes, spring queens, and workers) to ascertain if differences in mortality and sub-lethal effects could be detected.
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Details
- Title
- AN INVESTIGATION OF CHEMICAL CONTROL TECHNIQUES FOR POLISTES PAPER WASPS
- Creators
- Megan Caye Asche
- Contributors
- Richard Zack (Advisor)Peter Landolt (Advisor)Walter S Sheppard (Committee Member)Rodney Cooper (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Entomology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 78
- Identifiers
- 99900652005001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation