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Urban tree pests can support biological control services in landscape shrubs

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Abstract

Scale insects are common tree pests in urban ecosystems. Although severe scale infestations can worsen tree condition, trees can tolerate moderate scale densities. Scale insects are prey for many arthropod natural enemies that also feed on plant pests throughout urban landscapes. Because scale-infested trees support natural enemy communities, they may support biological control services on nearby plants and function analogously to banker plants in greenhouse production systems. In this study we tested if sentinel insect prey were more likely to be removed on shrubs below scale-infested trees compared to scale-uninfested trees. We conducted several biological control experiments from 2019 to 2021 using fruit flies, aphids, and caterpillars in potted and planted holly shrubs below scale-infested and scale-uninfested oak trees. We found that caterpillars in potted shrubs and fruit flies in planted landscape shrubs were more likely to be removed underneath scale-infested trees compared to scale-uninfested trees. Caterpillars were also more likely to be removed from landscape Ilex vomitoria shrubs compared to I. cornuta shrubs. In all other experiments we found no effect of scale infestation status or shrub species on prey removal. Our results suggest that scale-infested trees can support biological control services in shrubs below them but that this effect can vary depending on prey and shrub species. The natural enemy communities in urban trees and shrubs appear to be linked and tolerating tree pests can favor conservation biological control services in urban landscapes.

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Data availability

The data used in this manuscript, and the R-script used to analyze the data, are available from the Dryad data repository at the following link: https://doi.org/doi:10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frbm.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Jasmine Travieso, Molly Carlson, Chandler Purser, Sophia Copeman and Jane Petzoldt for assisting with field work. We would also like to thank Christina Mitchell, Rebecca Irwin, Anders Huseth, Clyde Sorenson, the handling editor, the editor in chief of the journal BioControl, and anonymous reviewers for feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript.

Funding

This research was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (Award Numbers: 2021-70006-35670, 2018-70006-28914, 2016-70006-25827) and by the Southern IPM Center (Project S21-008) as part of USDA NIFA CPPM RCP (Agreement No. 2018-70006-28884).

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  1. Caleb J. Wilson

    Present address: Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

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  1. Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Caleb J. Wilson & Steven D. Frank

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CJW and SDF designed all experiments. SDF acquired funding. CJW conducted field experiments, statistical analyses, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Caleb J. Wilson.

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Handling Editor: Josep Anton Jaques Miret.

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Wilson, C.J., Frank, S.D. Urban tree pests can support biological control services in landscape shrubs. BioControl 68, 375–386 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-023-10192-8

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