Location: Tropical Crop and Commodity Protection Research
Project Number: 2040-43000-018-040-T
Project Type: Trust Fund Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Mar 1, 2024
End Date: Nov 30, 2026
Objective:
Develop phytosanitary guidelines for the combination treatment of ethyl formate fumigation and irradiation to disinfest spotted wing drosophila and mealybugs in grape.
Approach:
• Rear spotted wing drosophila Drosophila suzukii on artificial diet and determine life cycle period in colony.
• Rear citrus mealybug (CMB) as a resistant surrogate of Pseudococcus comstki, grape mealybug most common in Campbell grape in Korea.
• Determine efficacy of stand-alone EF treatment on different life stages of SWD and CMB using small scale fumigation chambers (0.03 m3).
• Determine efficacy of stand-alone irradiation treatment on different life stages of SWD and CMB.
• Conduct EF + irradiation combination treatment efficacy trials on SWD and CMB using LCt50 (for EF) and LD50 (for irradiation with either 30 Gy or 50 Gy) for respective EF- and radio-tolerant life stages.
• Conduct combination of EF and irradiation treatment in different sequence, either irradiation treatment followed by EF treatment, or EF treatment followed by irradiation treatment.
• Evaluate the effects of following treatments on grape quality (color, weight, sugar content, shelf-life, flavor) from (1) low-dose EF + irradiation treatment, (2) stand-alone EF treatment at LCt99%, and (3) stand-alone irradiation treatment at LD99% level.
• Determine EF sorption in grape.
• Determine EF concentration using a micro portable gas-chromatography with eTCD detector.
• Determine irradiation dose using optichromic and alanine dosimeters. For irradiation treatment, a commercial 5 meV x-ray irradiator and a 165 kV Radsource research-scale x-ray irradiator are available.
