Dr. Tom Unruh checks if strawberry leafrollers in wild rose bushes are parasitized by the wasp Colpoclypeus florus. Wild multiflora roses planted near orchards can be a haven for a tiny wasp that parasitizes and kills the orchard pests, pandemis and obliquebanded leafrollers. The parasite Colpoclypeus florus can be an effective biological control, but it can’t survive year-round on the leafrollers that infest orchards. It attacks fourth- or fifth-instar leafroller larvae, but those species of leafrollers overwinter as young larvae, a stage at which they are too small to serve as hosts for the wasp. Dr. Tom Unruh, entomologist with […]