2023–2024 Research and Results Highlights

Making Monitoring Easier: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Traps in Spotted Wing Drosophila

For more than a decade, NYSIPM has served as a leader in research and extension efforts to reduce the impact of spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) (SWD), an invasive fruit fly that causes more than $500 million in economic damage to fruit crops each year.  

As part of her ongoing work with the SWD Monitoring Network, Fruit IPM Specialist Anna Wallis, in collaboration with extension specialists across the state, has been conducting research to make trapping and monitoring for SWD easier and more efficient, including a two-year research study designed to compare the effectiveness of popular trapping methods. 

Why Monitor for SWD?

Monitoring can save unnecessary sprays in a late infestation year, reducing time and labor, decreasing pesticide use, and protecting against pesticide resistance. In an early year, it can also ensure adequate protection is in place, and production of high-quality fruit. However, monitoring is time-intensive and requires specialized equipment. Identifying an easier monitoring method is also critical because the SWD Network can only provide county trends, not farm-specific information. Over the past two years, a team across the state compared jar (drowning) traps with red sticky cards, to see if they are as effective at detecting SWD.  

Trap Comparison Methods & Results 

Over the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons, NYSIPM compared jar and sticky traps at berry or cherry plantings across New York. At each site, two of each trap type were placed along the edge of the berry patch or orchard, spaced 50 meters apart. Traps were monitored weekly through sustained trap capture (two consecutive weeks of at least one SWD in the trap) and the number of SWD observed in each trap was recorded. 

In 2023, the SWD monitoring network included 118 monitoring locations in 24 counties, maintained by 18 individuals. First trap captures were reported from June 13 to July 20, and sustained captures a week later (sustained capture = SWD detected at least two weeks in a row). This is considerably later than average; in many years, first capture occurs in mid-May, almost a month earlier.  

Traps in the SWD monitoring network are located on commercial farms, and typically serviced by Cornell Extension Personnel or grower collaborators. In addition, some growers have begun servicing their own traps, with our guidance or from reading the online resources. 

Jar Traps 

Scentry jar traps with lure have been used since 2016 in the SWD monitoring network. They require filling a plastic jar trap with a ‘drowning solution’ of soapy water and attaching a Scentry lure. The trap is placed in the canopy and monitored weekly. Drowning solution must be filtered using a funnel and fine mesh, and its contents are taken to the lab to identify flies under a dissecting microscope. Research has consistently demonstrated that these traps are among the most effective and sensitive for early detection of SWD. However, the process of monitoring is tedious, time-consuming, and requires specialized equipment, and may be too onerous for commercial growers. 

Sticky cards 

An alternative to jar traps are sticky cards. These red cards are affixed in the canopy along with a Trécé scented lure and are monitored weekly for SWD. The cards are examined for male SWD in the field, which are easy to identify using a hand lens or optivisor, by the characteristic spots on the tips of their wings. 

Findings 

After analyzing the data collected during the two-year study, Wallis concluded that the two trap types offer a similar level of detection and that user preference likely plays a large role in successful implementation. Having multiple trap types available is likely to increase the practice of monitoring, thus site-specific detection of SWD and targeted pesticide use to reduce fruit infestation and other negative consequences. Further improvements to the sticky traps (grid lines, yellow color) may improve user-friendliness (and therefore detection) and will be evaluated in the future. 

EIQ: Growing Sustainable Solutions to Pest Management

McCain Foods, the world’s largest producer of frozen potato products, ​plans to implement regenerative agriculture practices with 100 percent of the potato growers they contract with by 2030, and they’re counting on New York State Integrated Pest Management’s Environmental Impact Quotient (EIQ) to help make it happen. 

EIQ Symposium

Niek Engbers, McCain’s manager of global technology and sustainability, shared that EIQ is a leading tool in the company’s efforts to strengthen farm resilience, crop yield and quality, in part through the reduction of synthetic inputs, such as pesticides, during an October 2023 EIQ Symposium hosted by NYSIPM’s Diana Obregon Corredor.

Engbers shared that all of McCain’s more than 3,000 growers worldwide use EIQ—a tool designed to help pest management practitioners make well-informed decisions about the health and environmental implications of using certain pesticides—to reduce the amount and impacts of pesticides they use on their crops.

Companies from Argentina, Brazil, France and the Netherlands participated in the Symposium, each highlighting the ways in which the use of EIQ has made their pest management practices more sustainable. 

Reducing Pesticide Use on New York State Park-owned Golf Courses

Carl Schimenti, a Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences researcher in the School of Integrative Plant Science, shared the way in which EIQ has reduced the use of pesticides by between 43 and more than 80 percent on New York State Park-owned golf courses. 

When the New York State Park and Historic Site System began looking at ways to make its 28 park-owned and operated golf courses more sustainable they first looked to see whether it was feasible to adopt a pesticide-free approach to course management. 

With the help of NYSIPM and Cornell’s turfgrass program and park facilities teams, they conducted a trial at Bethpage State Park Golf Course, which divided an 18-hole course into three test groups—six holes saw no pesticide application, six followed EIQ guidance to determine the least amount of pesticide that could be used effectively, and six holes relied on traditional approaches to pest management. 

While results showed that zero pesticide use was not a viable option, there was no discernible difference between the condition of the holes that relied on EIQ and those that relied on traditional approaches.  As a result, course managers across the state began using EIQ to minimize risk. 

The Future of EIQ

NYSIPM is currently working to further strengthen the EIQ platform, making it an even more impactful tool for protecting pest management professionals and the environment in New York and around the world. And Obregon Corredor is working to build awareness. In 2023, she served as a keynote speaker at the New IPM: One Health International Symposium.