Location: Horticultural Crops Disease and Pest Management Research Unit
Project Number: 2072-22000-044-044-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2024
End Date: Oct 31, 2025
Objective:
Spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii, a native insect of Asia, is now a serious world-wide invasive pest that attacks small fruits and cherries. Pesticides and other common management approaches for SWD have focused on within-crop management. Because SWD can develop on many wild and ornamental species, the surrounding landscape contributes to pest pressure, and therefore, areawide controls require closer examination. Our team of entomologists, commercial growers, and a crop consultants will work on an areawide management plan. In the final year, the project will focus on large releases at our release site, and additional releases at other sites and the control site at the end.
Approach:
The Areawide project implements sustainable tools based on: 1) evidence of efficacy, 2) likelihood of grower adoption, 3) availability of a commercial product, 4) practicality, and 5) economics. Areawide tools include parasitoid releases into the non-crop area, SWD modeling and monitoring to better time insecticide applications, use of non-toxic sprays or products that manipulate SWD behavior. A paired release and control site have been set up with a 25-point monitoring grid over 300+ acres. Parasitoids are released into surrounding non-crop areas to lower the overall SWD pressure in the landscape. We will incorporate attract & kill technology on farms to reduce sprays. To assess impacts, the paired sites will be monitored weekly for SWD abundance, fruit infestation and parasitoid presence. Spray records and testing field populations for insecticide resistance will determine if the Areawide management decreased insecticide use.
