Investigating Producers’ Preferences for Crapemyrtle and Their Perceptions Regarding Crapemyrtle Bark Scale

Abstract

Crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia spp.) is the most popular summer flowering tree in the U.S. Its total value sold has almost doubled since 1998. Consumers prize crapemyrtles for their beauty and being relatively pest free. However, current crapemyrtle production and use might be affected by crapemyrtle bark scale (CMBS; Acanthococcus lagerstroemiae), which has been confirmed in at least 14 U.S. states after its first sighting in Texas in 2004. In this study, we conducted interviews of business representatives. Our survey results indicate that producers anticipate a significant decrease in the value of crapemyrtle if infested with CMBS, and suggest industry demand for CMBS control. An important finding of our research is that a majority of businesses support science-based CMBS control research. Another important finding from our study is that most producers believed that benefits of CMBS control outweigh the costs. We used a relative importance index to illustrate the ranking of different attributes of crapemyrtles that producers consider while making decisions about growing/purchasing the plants. Flower color was found to be the most important attribute, followed by disease resistance. The most popular landscape plants that can potentially serve as alternatives to crapemyrtle, in the opinion of producers we surveyed, are Vitex agnus-castus (Texas lilac), Magnolia spp., and Hibiscus spp.

Biological Parameters of Crapemyrtle Bark Scale (Acanthococcus lagerstroemiae) Differ When Reared on Different Crapemyrtle Hosts

“…The most popular crapemyrtle cultivars (with the greatest sales) are interspecific hybrids 'Natchez', 'Muskogee', and 'Tuscarora' (Marwah et al 2021), which are all susceptible to CMBS attacks according to greenhouse feeding trials (Wang et al 2019) and our observations. In previous studies, six crapemyrtle species (L. caudata, L. fauriei 'Kiowa', L. indica 'Dynamite', L. limii, L. speciosa, and L. subcostata) and the hybrid cultivars (L. indica × fauriei 'Spiced Plum' and L. 'Natchez') were evaluated as for their suitability as CMBS hosts under greenhouse conditions (Wu et al 2021;Xie et al 2020).…”

“…Infestation by CMBS has been reported to cause the reduction of flowering in crapemyrtle (Harp 2022;Wu et al 2022b;Xie et al 2020). Furthermore, the continuous spread of CMBS not only lowers the value of crapemyrtle as perceived by consumers and producers (Marwah et al 2021) but also threatens other plant species (native or nonnative) in the United States (Wu et al 2021(Wu et al , 2022bXie et al 2021). The infestation of CMBS has been confirmed on several native plants in the United States, including American beautyberry and St. Johnswort (Schultz and Szalanski 2019;Wu et al 2022b) and plants in the rose family, such as apple and spirea (Xie et al 2020(Xie et al , 2021.…”

Impacts of COVID-19 on the Green Industry

“…The relative importance index (RI) can be employed to compare the ranking of all the challenges faced by the businesses, based on their relative severity [8]. RI has been used in horticulture, engineering research, and project management (e.g., [9][10][11][12][13][14]). The following formula is used to calculate the RI [15]:…”

Real-Time Feeding Behavior Monitoring by Electrical Penetration Graph Rapidly Reveals Host Plant Susceptibility to Crapemyrtle Bark Scale (Hemiptera: Eriococcidae)

“…By virtue of its wide distribution and long blooming period, crapemyrtle provides excellent pollen sources for native and non-native bees in the U.S., especially when other resources are naturally scarce [ 5 , 6 ]. However, a heavy infestation of A. lagerstroemiae reduces crapemyrtle flowering/vigor and even causes branch dieback [ 7 , 8 ], which engenders a significant decrease in the sale number and value of crapemyrtle anticipated by the Green Industry [ 9 ].…”

“…Time-saving and reliable approaches are in great need to rapidly reveal host plants for A. lagerstroemiae . The Green Industry is in need of management research of A. lagerstroemiae [ 9 ], where host evaluation research based on estimation of insect feeding performance is essential [ 19 ]. For chewing insects, estimating feeding performance and herbivory damage could be straightforward through short-period comparisons about the volume of consumed foliage [ 5 , 20 ].…”