Cover crops are used to maintain and even promote soil health and prevent erosion. Little is known about the potential of using cover crops for pest management. This research explores slug feeding preferences to various cover crop species. Planting the right cover crop could then have the dual benefit of protecting soils and reducing slug injury on soybean. This work aims to evaluate feeding preferences of slugs (e.g., grey garden or marsh slugs) for various cover crop species and evaluate the impact of cover crop species on the development of those slugs.Key Benefactors: farmers, agronomists, Extension agents
This data was presented at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America in St Louis in 2019. It will be soon published as a peer-reviewed paper.
Update:
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In addition to being of source of nitrogen for the cash crop, using cover crop species from the Fabaceae family can offer an ecological sound alternative to synthetic pesticides against mollusks and especially slugs.
The United Soybean Research Retention policy will display final reports with the project once completed but working files will be purged after three years. And financial information after seven years. All pertinent information is in the final report or if you want more information, please contact the project lead at your state soybean organization or principal investigator listed on the project.