Spotted-wing drosophila management on post-harvest cherry waste

Sunday, November 13, 2022

4:30 PM – 4:42 PM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 203

Presenting Author(s)

Charlotte Schuttler

Graduate student
Michigan State University
Lansing, Michigan

Co-Author(s)

MG

Matthew J. Grieshop

Director The Grimm Family Center for Organic Production and Research
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California
Hannah Joy Burrack

Michigan State University
Okemos, Michigan
NR

Nikki Rothwell

Michigan State University
Traverse City, Michigan

Spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (SWD), causes millions of dollars of damage to berry, cherry, and grape crops annually. Spotted-wing drosophila has been found coast to coast in the United States and no-tolerance policies for insects in fruit often results in intense insecticide programs. It is known that spotted-wing drosophila readily reproduces in unharvested fruit and fruit processing remnants. While research shows that removal of dropped waste, or solarization, can limit SWD populations, these methods are often not feasible for growers. Evaluation of burying waste has also been researched but it was found that shallow burial is not effective at farm scales with depths needed to achieve maximum emergence reduction.

During heavy crop years for tart cherries, many waste cherries end up on the ground. Preliminary field research has shown that an addition of organic chicken manure to waste fruit (20% by volume) can decrease reproduction of spotted-wing drosophila. During the post-harvest fruit season of July 2021- September 2021, I tested multiple treatments of cherry waste in a field setting. Crushing waste cherries was assessed and found to limit SWD reproduction. Addition of 15% organic chicken manure by volume was more effective than crushing, with the most effective treatment being the addition of 20% organic chicken manure by volume. The addition of chicken manure to fruit wastes creates the opportunity for non pesticide based pest management. In this presentation I will discuss my evaluation of spotted-wing drosophila management at field scale.