Management of strawberry blossom weevil and European tarnished plant bug in organic strawberry and raspberry using semiochemical traps

Summary

In the absence of effective control measures, the strawberry blossom weevil (Anthonomus rubi), the European tarnished plant bug (Lygus rugulipennis) and the raspberry beetle (Byturus tomentosus) cause large (10 - >80%) losses in yield and quality in organically grown strawberry (A. rubi and L .rugulipennis) and raspberry (A. rubi and B. tomentosus). In this project the natural semiochemical mechanisms of sexual attraction and host plant finding of these key pests will be exploited to develop effective semiochemical traps for their management through mass trapping. Attractive lures will be combined into a single multitrap for economic management of these pests simultaneously in each crop. This will be one of the first approaches to pest management of non-lepidopteran insect pests of horticultural crops using semiochemicals in the EU, and probably the first to target multiple species from different insect orders. Growers of organic raspberry and strawberry crops currently have few options for effective control of these pests and development of semiochemical-based, non-pesticidal management techniques will make a major contribution to reduction of significant economic losses.