Micro-Bait Station Suzukii

Spotted wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii, is an aggressive, prolific, and polyphagous pest species of many crops, because they lay their eggs in healthy, unripened soft-skinned fruit,rendering them unmarketable. In August 2008, the first detection of SWD in the US caused great concern, as the fly was found infesting a variety of commercial fruits on the coast of California. The following year, SWD was detected in Oregon, Washington, Florida, and British Columbia; and in 2010, the pest appeared in Utah, North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, and Louisiana. Additional detections of SWD occurred in Virginia, Montana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and most states in the Northeast and Mexico in 2011. In Europe, SWD was first detected in 2009 in Italy and Spain, and in France the following year. In 2012, SWD was also found in South America, in Brazil. Growers in SWD-affected areas have not only suffered significant losses in susceptible crops, but also increased costs of labor and materials to deal with this invasive pest, including higher inputs of chemical insecticides, and the use of monitoring and management tools to keep SWD populations under control.Damage caused by SWD has forced growers to stop or interrupt harvests, downgrade fruit, and apply additional pesticide treatments. Just in California, Oregon and Washington, where the total farmgate value of affected fruit is $2.6B, the total revenue losses due to SWD were over $511M. Routine cover sprays of broad-spectrum insecticides area now applied 5-7 times per season just to control SWD, increasing the likelihood that the crop will have excess residual pesticide levels.Because of those risks, the sustainable management and control market for SWD in North America and Europe is projected to exceed $250 million per year by 2017.US berry and tree fruit growers urgently need effective management strategies to deal with this emerging pest. Spotted wing drosophila has been a frequent topic in newsletters and trade publications, and is listed as a top research priority by national and regional grower associations like the North American Strawberry Growers Association, the North American Raspberry and Blackberry Growers Association, Michigan blueberry and cherry growers, and berry growers in New York and New Jersey. This proposal seeks to address the needs of these growers by developing a sustainable management tool for SWD: specifically, we will further develop and optimize an attract-and-kill strategy consisting of micro-bait stations that overcome the limitations of conventional insecticides. These bait stations exude semiochemicals that preferentially attract SWD, and phagostimulants that incite attracted insects to feed on the bait and ingest a lethal dose of insecticide. Using ISCA's proven semiochemical delivery system, SPLAT® (Specialized Pheromone & Lure Application Technology), the resulting product, SPLAT SWD, provides the necessary longevity and effectiveness needed by growers to maintain a profitable operation. SPLAT SWD will directly benefit growers by enhancing on-farm environmental and economic sustainability, and will extend these benefits to the consumer market by minimizing the risks associated with pesticide residues on produce, and by helping to maintain the affordability of locally grown, healthful foods.The results of our Phase I studies have been highly encouraging. We have successfully identified a number of components and blends that are strong attractants, affording high degree of efficacy as SWD baits in the laboratory. We developed and field-tested a number of prototype A&K bait sprays, some of which proved to suppress populations of the pest, as well as the amount of damage these insects inflict on berry crops, in commercial crops. In Phase II, we will build on these successes to refine and optimize both the attractant/phagostimulant AI blend and the physical formulation of SPLAT SWD, to ensure that