Biological control of the new invasive pest species Spotted Wing Drosophila

The Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii, is an invasive fruit fly from Asia that infests ripening fruit. It is rapidly spreading north in Europe and already causes millions of euros of damage in the fruit industry. This new pest species infests a wide range of fruit crops and there is an urgent need to control the SWD in The Netherlands. General directives are provided to commercial fruit growers to repeatedly and prophylactically apply broad-spectrum pesticides, but this proves to be neither effective, nor efficient, nor sustainable. We aim to capitalize on our extensive expertise in Drosophila chemical ecology, insect reproduction, insect evolutionary genetics, and interactions with parasitoids and pathogens, to develop innovative and locally attuned approaches for the management of this invasive pest. Our consortium will 1) unravel the infestation dynamics, the life history traits and mortality factors that control SWD population growth in The Netherlands; 2) combine this knowledge with behavioural and sensory research to identify chemical components that can be applied in lures, traps and deterrents for a "push-pull" crop protection strategy and 3) supplement this strategy with selectively breeding biological control agents that can be released or applied in an integrated pest management strategy to control infestations of SWD. By linking the fundamentals of ecology, population genetics and behaviour with knowledge on biological control from leading academic groups and from industry, our project has the potential to provide an all-inclusive solution to this emerging pest.