The spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura)) is a highly invasive species and attacking different species of berry carrying hosts. Much research has already been done on the crop hosts over the world and in Slovenia, but for wild hosts less is known. on basis of literature and fieldwork we prepared a list of potential and actual known species of wild hosts for Slovenia. in 2019, berries of different species were collected and D. suzukii was either reared from these berries or berries were dissected. in total we found in the literature for europe 99 species which were used as host for D. suzukii. For Slovenia we found 71 potential hosts and 14 hosts which were actually infested. in Slovenia there was a broad range of potential hosts from 41 genera. the genera with the most potential hosts were Prunus, Lonicera and Vaccinium. Among the potential hosts were also many species which were invasive alien or alien species. the list was discussed in the context of management implications and further research on D. suzukii in Slovenia.
COBISS.SI-ID: 37984003
At the conference, we presented for berry growers practical experience in catching SWD with different food traps and attractants.
COBISS.SI-ID: 949367
We present a synthetic review and expert consultation that assesses the actual risks posed by arthropod pests in four major crops, identifies targets for integrated pest management (IPM) in terms of cultivated land needing pest control and gauges the implementation “readiness” of non-chemical alternatives. Our assessment focuses on the world’s primary target pests for neonicotinoid-based management: western corn rootworm (WCR, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera) in maize; wireworms (Agriotes spp.) in maize and winter wheat; bird cherry-oat aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi) in winter wheat; brown planthopper (BPH, Nilaparvata lugens) in rice; cotton aphid (Aphis gossypii) and silver-leaf whitefly (SLW, Bemisia tabaci) in cotton. First, we queried scientific literature databases and consulted experts from different countries in Europe, North America, and Asia about available IPM tools for each crop-pest system. Next, using an online survey, we quantitatively assessed the economic relevance of target pests by compiling country-level records of crop damage, yield impacts, extent of insecticide usage, and “readiness” status of various pest management alternatives (i.e., research, plot-scale validation, grower-uptake). Biological control received considerable scientific attention, while agronomic strategies (e.g., crop rotation), insurance schemes, decision support systems (DSS), and innovative pesticide application modes were listed as key alternatives. Our study identifies opportunities to advance applied research, IPM technology validation, and grower education to halt or drastically reduce our overreliance on systemic insecticides globally. The paper has a significant scientific value, as it is published in a renown ‘environmental’ journal. The paper directly deals with the theme of the CRP project, as it describes our research activities related to finding alternatives to the wide spread use of conventional synthetic insecticides. Thus the achievement shows that we strive towards reducing the reliance on synthetic pesticides, which is directly in sync with modern Slovenian and European agricultural policies.
COBISS.SI-ID: 45547267