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10-Minute Paper

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

P-IE: IPM - Horticulture 2

A push-pull strategy to control spotted-wing drosophila in a blueberry orchard with FDA-approved flavoring substances as repellents

Wednesday, November 8, 2023
8:00 AM - 8:12 AM ET
Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor 7
In-Person
To combat fruit crop infestation by the invasive spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii, an Integrated Pest Management strategy such as “push-pull”, which uses a combination of repellents and attractants, is more environmentally friendly than the regular application of synthetic pesticides. A naturally occurring volatile organic compound found in petunia and snapdragon flowers, methyl benzoate (MB), has been found to have effective ovicidal and larvicidal effects on SWD, such that infested fruits can be treated with MB to prevent pest development and further fruit damage. We tested whether MB could be employed as a repellent in a “push-pull” strategy to prevent SWD infestation in blueberry. With MB dispensers that could be hung in bushes to emit MB vapor as the “push”, and traps baited with a blend of scents attractive to SWD as the “pull”, we conducted a randomized complete-block experiment in a U-pick blueberry orchard across two growing seasons. In the first season, we found that the presence of MB led to a statistically significant reduction in the number of SWD eggs found in infested berries but did not significantly reduce the frequency of blueberry infestation compared to controls. To improve the efficacy of this push-pull strategy, we conducted a series of laboratory tests between growing seasons with naturally occurring structural analogs of MB. We report the relative repellencies of these analogs and the results from our second field season trials in which we tested the best-performing analog in addition to an increased application of MB.