Monarch BT Corn Pollen Impact - Research Priorities

[Chip Taylor]

>1. Is it possible to EVER find a substantial proportion of the millions
>of square miles of the MidWest's milkweeds coated with a layer of Bt
>pollen dust as thick as the layer used in the Cornell study?

I can't comment on the picture because I don't know whether it was staged
to show pollen on a leaf or whether it was representative of the
experiment. My impression, from conversations with my colleagues, is that
dustings of Bt pollen too fine to be seen with the eye or camera are
sufficient to kill the larvae. Clarification is needed on this point.
Usually, only small amounts of Bt toxin are required to kill lep larvae.


Monarch Watch
Email:  monarch at ukans.edu
WWW:  http://www.MonarchWatch.org/
Dplex-L:  send message "info Dplex-L" to Listproc at ukans.edu
Phone:  1 (888) TAGGING (toll-free!) -or- 1 (785) 864 4441
Fax:  1 (785) 864 4441 -or- 1 (785) 864 5321
Snail:  c/o O.R. Taylor, Dept. of Entomology, Univ. of KS, Lawrence KS 66045