Control of Drosophila suzukii in fruit crops using Sterile Insect Technique (SIT)

Sunday, November 13, 2022

2:06 PM – 2:18 PM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 203

Presenting Author(s)

MF

Michelle Fountain

Head of Department
NIAB East Malling
Kent, England, United Kingdom

Co-Author(s)

RH

Rafael Homem

BigSis
Reading, England, United Kingdom
Zeus Mateos-Fierro

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
SH

Sebastian Hemer

Berry Garden Growers
Tonbridge, England, United Kingdom
BB

Benjamin Brough

Berry Garden Growers
Tonbridge, England, United Kingdom
AW

Adam Walker

NIAB East Malling
Kent, England, United Kingdom
GS

Glen Slade

BigSis
Reading, England, United Kingdom

Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) is an economically important pest of fruit crops worldwide. Control relies on broad-spectrum insecticides, which are neither fully effective nor environmentally sustainable. Sterile insect technique (SIT) is a proven strategy for insect pest control which is compatible with other integrated pest management strategies.

Using a proprietary method of D. suzukii rearing and irradiation with X-rays males were obtained that were > 99% sterile. Sterile males were released twice per week from April to October into a strawberry crop. Releases of sterile males suppressed the wild female D. suzukii population by up to 91% in comparison with the conventionally managed control sites.

To ensure the appropriate timing of release and quantity of sterile male D. suzukii to deploy it is imperative to understand the underlying biology and intra-specific interactions with wild D. suzukii in cropping situations. In this paper, using a combination of methods including mating competitiveness and courtship behaviour assays, windtunnel bioassays, and mark and recapture field experiments we will report further on the fitness, mating competitiveness, flight ability and dispersal of irradiated male D. suzukii.

Using early, sustained and dynamically targeted releases of sterile male D. suzukii, SIT has the potential to achieve season-long control of D. suzukii. Further studies underlying the mechanism of in-field interactions between laboratory reared sterile males and wild male and female D. suzukii will enable crop and site-specific D. suzukii suppression strategies to be optimised and adopted.