Author(s): Elliot Roberts
Mentor(s): Claudia Nischwitz, Melanie Stock
Institution USU
Cut flower production is a relatively new industry in the state of Utah and little research concerning management of the plants has been conducted. One issue producers face are insects that harm the plants in ways such as feeding damage and transmission of diseases. Currently it is unknown which insects target different species of cut flowers in Utah. Morphological identification of genera and species is often difficult or impossible because of the small size of many of the insects and minute differences between species. This project uses PCR and DNA sequencing to identify the genus and species of insects that were capturing while residing on cut flowers in Utah. The resulting sequences were compared to other known sequences using the NCBI BLAST search. To date 21 species have been identified on 14 species of cut flowers grown on 12 cut flower farms across Utah. This information allows producers to proactively take measures against specific species of insects.