Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The research results obtained in this project will most directly benefit growers producing berry crops, especially blueberries, raspberries, and day-neutral strawberries, as well as cherries and potentially grapes, where SWD is the most problematic. This includes a large number of small and medium-sized farms in the USA. Note that berry crops are often an important component of many farm operations that direct market their produce through farm stands and farmers markets. Consumers of fresh produce are sensitive to insect contamination as well insecticide residues and the research proposed here will help growers produce clean fruit using fewer chemical control products. The results generated from the research should also provide needed information to extension educators and pest control advisors in the affected regions. We also anticipate commercial pest control companies will have an interest in our research results. The project will provide learning opportunities for growers, students, extension educators, industry representatives through talks at grower meetings, extension publications, scientific publications, and workshops. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A total of four postdocs have worked on serval aspects of this project. Postdocs have learned about the biology and chemical ecology of spotted wing drosophila and obtained experience with developing behavioral bioassays in the lab and conducting experiments under field conditions. Postdocs also gained experience in collection and chemical analysis of volatile organic compounds. Research technicians have gained valuable experience with chemical ecology techniques including methodology for working with volatiles and contact deterrents in the lab and in the field. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results from this project have been shared with other scientists through both peer-reviewed publications and presentations at multiple scientific meetings. During the course of this project we have also made numerous presentations at industry meetings. These activities have been reported in the Output sections of the NIFA reporting platform. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1. Optimize effectiveness of repellent DCX (now identified as 2-pentylfuran or 2pf) -Ran lab behavioral assays to show that azadirachtin acted as a contact deterrent for oviposition but not as a spatial repellent (did not affect SWD behavior at a distance). -Ran single fruiting cluster field trials in raspberries under high SWD pressure and found additive but not synergistic impact of azadirachtin (at label rate) and 2pf in one trial and little effect of azadirachtin in second. Indicates further research, potentially testing higher rates of azadirachtin. -Tested a second contact repellent (under patent review) alone and in combination with 2pf in the field. In single cluster tests, we found evidence of a strong additive effect such that the combination resulted in the lowest levels of SWD infestation. -Tested candidate contact repellent (under patent review) alone and in combination with 2pf in the field using small research plots of raspberries. At this larger scale did not see clear effects of the combination. Moreover, when applied to foliage and fruit we observed major amounts of phytoxicity. -Continued work on contact repellent to find ways to reduce phytoxicity, including determining the primary active ingredients. However, phytotoxicity remains a significant hurdle. Objective 2. Evaluate effect of 2pf released from different dispensing technologies and in combination with attract and kill (push-pull). -We developed sachets made from different thickness of polyethylene plastics to control release rates of 2pf. This plastic prevents water from entering thereby allowing us to use mass loss to estimate release rates. This releaser technology made it possible to dispense 2pf at controlled rates in experiments described under objective 1 above. We tested the efficacy of three densities of sachets, each releasing 2pf at approximately 15 mg/h, for reducing SWD infestations, using small plantings of raspberries (3 rows, 6 m per row). At the highest density (sachet every 0.5 meter) we observed a modest but significant 25% reduction in SWD infestation, although infestation levels were quite high even the high density release treatment. The labor involved in producing sachets makes it unsuitable for use at commercial scale. -Working with our industry partner, Scentry Biologicals, headquartered in Billings, Montana, we tested the use of programmable aerosol puffers to control 2pf release. Using small field cages with potted raspberries we evaluated the effect of different release rates per puff and number of puffs per unit time, and density of puffers. We also used small field plots of raspberries to test efficacy of puffers, releasing about 8 mg/puff and at a rate of one puff per minute, in reducing SWD infestations. Overall, puffers were not very effective in reducing SWD infestation at this larger scale. We used battery-driven pumps coupled with charcoal filters to quantify concentration of 2pf at different distances from puffer release points. We were only able to detect 2pf with GC-MS when sampling air very close to release point indicating that 2pf has high volatility and is not remaining in the fruit zone at sufficiently high concentrations to impact SWD. Given the expense of puffers, this release method is not commercially viable. -As an alternative to puffers, we again worked with Scentry Biologicals to develop pvc spirals as a new method of deploying 2pf at a constant release rate. After testing different approaches at their facility, Scentry produced spirals that continuously released 2pf at a constant 50 mg/h for up to four days. We tested the efficacy of the spirals under realistic field conditions in the final year of the project. Although we are still analyzing results, it does not appear, however, that the significantly reduced SWD infestation under high SWD pressure. -Given the high costs of 2pf and the need to release at high concentration to be effective, it does not seem that spiral technology is commercially viable as a stand alone control method. Therefore, we tested their use in combination with insecticide applied below the canopy of raspberries and with attract and kill stations (push-pull approach). Data are still being analyzed. Objective 3. Evaluate impact of 2pf on beneficial insects. -In experiments where we deployed 2pf at larger scale (3 rows of raspberries, each about 6 m in length) we have also assessed beneficial. Specifically, pollinator activity was assessed using direct observations of floral visits and natural enemy activity was assessed using yellow sticky cards placed in canopy. This includes an experiment involving release of 2pf using sachets, an experiment using puffers, and an experiment using pvc spirals. We have not detected a decrease in pollinator or natural enemy activity in any of these experiments. Objective 4. Development of new repellents for SWD. -We have conducted several lab and small scale field experiments testing the effect of several candidate repellents against SWD. In previous research, we have shown that volatiles from the plant pathogen Botrytis cinerea is significantly reduces attraction of SWD to an attractive fruit source. For this project, our plan was to make progress in identifying the responsible volatile compounds. However, this has proven quite challenging. Thus, we have not make new progress along these lines. We have investigated three other compounds that were identified as repellent to SWD at the same time as when we discovered 2pf. All three (compounds L, M, and N) show similar levels of spatial repellency as 2pf in lab bioassays. Through a series of pairwise comparisons in lab bioassays, we have shown that two of these compounds are additive in impact to 2pf while one is not. Since these two compounds are less expensive than 2pf there is the potential to use mixtures to bring down costs, assuming we can show significant repellency under realistic field conditions, a goal for future research.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Roh, G.H., Meier, L., Hesler, S., Zhu, J.J., Kendra, P., Roda, A., Loeb, G. Tay, J., Cha, D.H. 2023. A 2-component blend of coconut oil derived fatty acids as an oviposition deterrent against Drosophila suzukii. Journal of Economic Entomology, 116: 1671-1678, DOI.org/10.1093/jee/toad092.
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The research results obtained in this project will most directly benefit growers producing berry crops, especially blueberries, raspberries, and day-neutral strawberries, as well as cherries and potentially grapes, where SWD is the most problematic. This includes a large number of small and medium-sized farms in the USA. Note that berry crops are often an important component of many farm operations that direct market their produce through farm stands and farmers markets. Consumers of fresh produce are sensitive to insect contamination as well insecticide residues and the research proposed here will help growers produce clean fruit using fewer chemical control products. The results generated from the research should also provide needed information to extension educators and pest control advisors in the affected regions. We also anticipate commercial pest control companies will have an interest in our research results. The project will provide learning opportunities for growers, students, extension educators, industry representatives through talks at grower meetings, extension publications, scientific publications, and workshops. Changes/Problems:We hired a new postdoc at the end of this reporting period. Our previous postdoc developed serious mental health issues and therefore could not continue. Unfortunately, this did slow progress on the research. The new postdoc is doing well but needed time to learn the system and understand previous research. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two postdocs worked on serval aspects of this project. Both postdocs have learned about the biology and chemical ecology of spotted wing drosophila and experience with developing behavioral bioassays in the lab and conducting experiments under field conditions. One postdoc learned how to collect volatiles in the field and use GC-MS to identify and quantify volatiles. Research technicians have gained valuable experience with chemical ecology techniques including methodology for working with volatiles and contact deterrents in the lab and in the field. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We presented results from this project at the Entomological Society of America annual meeting in Denver, Co as part of a symposium. We also shared results with grower groups through two different grower meetings in New York. Research Presentations: Meier, L., Loeb, G. Repellent compounds as an ipm tool for spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii): behavioral manipulation in the field. Invited virtual talk as part of symposium "Applied use of semiochemicals in field situations" during the 2021 ESA Annual Meeting in Denver, CO. Extension Presentations: Loeb, G. 2002. Focus on repellents. Contribution to the annual webinar put as part of the USDA NIFA SCRI project on spotted wing drosophila, Advances in Behavior-based tactics for management of spotted-wing drosophila. Held on December 8, 2022. My section was about 15 minutes, although I helped in putting together the entire presentation that lasted about 90 minutes. Audience reached 266. Contact hours = 66.5. Loeb, G. and Aflitto, N.A. 2022. Recent developments in behavioral modifying treatments for spotted wing drosophila. 20 minute virtual talk for Northern New York Fruit winter meeting. About 130 participants. Feb 8, 2022. Contact hours = 43.3 What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to work on developing more effective methods for deploying 2pf under more realistic field conditions. Specifically, we plan to work with our partner to develop the use of pvc spirals which we believe will be able to continuously release 2pf at a constant rate at high enough concentrations to be effective. In addition, we will test 2pf in combination with insecticides and attract and kill stations (push-pull). We also work on preparing research publications. We plan to begin studies on mechanisms of repellency with 2pf.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overall goal of this project is to develop the use of repellents for managing the invasive vinegar fly Drosophila suzukii (spotted wing drosophila or SWD), a destructive direct pest of soft-skinned fruit crops throughout the USA and internationally. The availability of a cost-effective repellent or repellents would have a large impact on the production of soft-skinned fruit crops in the USA and elsewhere for several reasons. Currently insecticides are the main tool available to growers of soft-skinned fruit for managing SWD. These are economically and environmentally (e.g. non target effects) costly. The use of an effective repellent would reduce help reduce negative impacts of insecticides. In the past year we submitted a patent application for a SWD contact repellent that is pending. This reporting period we continued testing the efficacy of 2pf under high pressure at more realistic scale and using alternative methods for deployment. Working with our industry partner, Scentry Biologicals, headquartered in Billings, Montana, we tested the use of programmable aerosol puffers to control 2pf release. Using small field cages with potted raspberries we evaluated the effect of different release rates per puff and number of puffs per unit time, and density of puffers. We also used small field plots of raspberries to test efficacy of puffers, releasing about 8 mg/puff and at a rate of one puff per minute, in reducing SWD infestations. Overall, puffers were not very effective in reducing SWD infestation at this larger scale. We used battery-driven pumps coupled with charcoal filters to quantify concentration of 2pf at different distances from puffer release points. We were only able to detect 2pf with GC-MS when sampling air very close to release point indicating that 2pf has high volatility and is not remaining in the fruit zone at sufficiently high concentrations to impact SWD. Given the expense of puffers, this release method is not commercially viable. We conducted several lab and small scale field experiments testing the effect of several candidate repellents against SWD. We have investigated three other compounds that were identified as repellent to SWD at the same time as when we discovered 2pf. All three (compounds L, M, and N) show similar levels of spatial repellency as 2pf in lab bioassays. Through a series of pairwise comparisons in lab bioassays, we have shown that two of these compounds are additive in impact to 2pf while one is not. Since these two compounds are less expensive than 2pf there is the potential to use mixtures to bring down costs, assuming we can show significant repellency under realistic field conditions, a goal for future research.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The research results obtained in this project will most directly benefit growers producing berry crops, especially blueberries, raspberries, and day-neutral strawberries, as well as cherries and potentially grapes, where SWD is the most problematic. This includes a large number of small and medium-sized farms in the USA. Note that berry crops are often an important component of many farm operations that direct market their produce through farm stands and farmers markets. Consumers of fresh produce are sensitive to insect contamination as well insecticide residues and the research proposed here will help growers produce clean fruit using fewer chemical control products. The results generated from the research should also provide needed information to extension educators and pest control advisors in the affected regions. We also anticipate commercial pest control companies will have an interest in our research results. The project will provide learning opportunities for growers, students, extension educators, industry representatives through talks at grower meetings, extension publications, scientific publications, and workshops. Changes/Problems:The most significant problem that has been encountered relates to covid-19. Mitigating risks of covid-19 has created some inefficiencies for the project such as travel restrictions and need to use masks and maintain six foot spacing, especially under indoors. The weather during the 2021 field season was particularly wet in the Northeast where most of the field research was conducted, which may have affected results. Finally, we had hoped to have a more efficient method of deployment of 2pf in the field before the 2021 field season and that has not happened for various reasons. In particular, we have not been able to negotiate a method for adding 2pf into aerosol canisters. We will be working on this approach over the next 6 months. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two postdocs have been working on serval aspects of this project. Both postdocs have learned about the biology and chemical ecology of spotted wing drosophila and experience with developing behavioral bioassays in the lab and conducting experiments under field conditions. Research technicians have gained valuable experience with chemical ecology techniques including methodology for working with volatiles and contact deterrents in the lab and in the field. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have presented several talks on the topic of behavioral control of SWD, including repellents and including data generated through this project. Two talks presented during this reporting period listed below. 2021. Loeb, G., Cha, D., Hesler, S., Meier, L., Stockton, D., Wallingford, A., Hyun Roh, G. Discovery and use of repellents for managing spotted wing drosophila. Virtual talk presented at the Eastern Branch ESA 2021 Annual Meeting as part of a symposium on application of chemical ecology. 2020. Loeb, G., Cha, D., Hesler, S., Meier, L., Stockton, d., Wallingford, A., and Roh, G.H. 2020. Recent advancements in repellents for behavioral control of SWD. A contribution as part of a research symposium affiliated with annual meeting of the USDA SWD WERA project held in association with the ESA annual meeting. We presented live over zoom on 13 November 2020. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to test the efficacy of 2pf separately and in combination with other repellents that work through different mechanisms under field conditions. We will strive to quantify concentrations of 2pf in the fruit canopy as a result of different deployment methods using pumps and volatile collection systems. We will continue to evaluate the efficacy of 2pf at larger scale in the field. We will test 2pf in combination with attract and kill techniques under field cage conditions. We will continue to test alternative methods for deploying 2pf. We will evaluate the impact of 2pf on beneficial arthropods, specifically pollinators.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overall goal of this project is to develop the use of repellents for managing the invasive vinegar fly Drosophila suzukii (spotted wing drosophila or SWD), a destructive direct pest of soft-skinned fruit crops throughout the USA and internationally. The availability of a cost-effective repellent or repellents would have a large impact on the production of soft-skinned fruit crops in the USA and elsewhere for several reasons. Currently insecticides are the main tool available to growers of soft-skinned fruit for managing SWD. These are economically and environmentally (e.g. non target effects) costly. Moreover, due to the current large scale use of insecticides for controlling SWD, insecticide resistance is becoming a serious problem and barrier. Being able to even partially substitute behavioral control (e.g. repellents) for one or several insecticide applications would help reduce costs and selection pressure on resistance. Most fruit crops are pollinator dependent and the use of insecticides can be detrimental to pollinators as well as other beneficial arthropods. The use of an effective repellent would reduce help reduce these negative impacts of insecticides. In the past year we submitted a patent application for a SWD spatial repellent that we discovered based on 2 pentylfuran (2pf). 2pf is a legal food additive with a mild odor. This reporting period we continued testing the efficacy of 2pf under high pressure field situations at different scales. Using single clusters on fall-bearing raspberry, we confirmed that 2pf, being released at about 10 mg per hour from sachets made from thin plastic significantly reduced natural SWD infestation relative to control, although the level of reduction varied among trials for reasons we do not fully understand. We also tested efficacy of 2pf using larger plots of fall raspberry. For these trials we used replicated experimental plots of fall raspberry (each replicate comprised of five 20' rows, separated by at least 0.5 km) at our research farm at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, NY. We established 4 different release rates by vary the number of sachets per planting (0, 16, 32 or 64). In our fall 2020 trial we found a significant reduction in natural SWD infestation only at the highest release rate. We hypothesized that the ambient level of 2pf in the canopy around fruit dropped to ineffective levels. We used a pump system to collect ambient volatiles from different locations in the different plantings and are currently completing GC-MS analyses to test this hypothesis. Preliminarily, we only found a good 2pf signal for the plot with the highest release rate of 2pf. The magnitude of the reduction in SWD infestation in the field in response to 2pf has been variable and not as large as we had hoped. We therefore hypothesize that we could enhance the efficacy of this spatial repellent by combining it with a contact repellent. We tested this idea using single clusters of fall raspberry in the field using azadirachtin as the contact repellent. We had shown previously that shown that that azadirachtin acts as a contact repellent, not a spatial repellent. In single cluster field tests, azadirachtin applied to berries significantly reduced infestation but unfortunately, it did not act synergistically or even fully additively with 2pf. We are exploring a new contact repellent (patent application underway) that looks to be more effective than azadirachtin, which we will report on in the future. We are also working on better and more cost-efficient ways to deploy 2pf at scale. During the summer of 2021 we tested different sachet designs leading to a doubling of 2pf output per sachet compared to our previous approach. We are also beginning to explore the use of automated puffers as a way to control regular releases of large amounts of 2pf that could be used in larger scale field experiments.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Cha, D.H., Roh, G.H., Hesler, S.P., Wallingford, A., Stockton, D.G., Park, S.K., and Loeb, G. 2020. 2-pentyyfuran: a novel repellent of Drosophila suzukii. Pest Management Science. DOI: 10.1002/ps.6196.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Stockton, D.G., Cha, D.H., and Loeb, G.M. 2021. Does habituation affect the efficacy of semiochemical ovisposition repellents developed against Drosophila suzukii? Environmental Entomologist, DOI.org/10.1093/ee/nvab099.
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The research results obtained in this project will most directly benefit growers producing berry crops, especially blueberries, raspberries, and day-neutral strawberries, as well as cherries and potentially grapes, where SWD is the most problematic. This includes a large number of small and medium-sized farms in the USA. Note that berry crops are often an important component of many farm operations that direct market their produce through farm stands and farmers markets. Consumers of fresh produce are sensitive to insect contamination as well insecticide residues and the research proposed here will help growers produce clean fruit using fewer chemical control products. The results generated from the research should also provide needed information to extension educators and pest control advisors in the affected regions. We also anticipate commercial pest control companies will have an interest in our research results. The project will provide learning opportunities for growers, students, extension educators, industry representatives through talks at grower meetings, extension publications, scientific publications, and workshops. Changes/Problems:As was true of many researches, the covid-19 pandemic affected operations of the research programs in both New York (Cornell) and Hawaii (USDA ARS). Both Cornell and USDA ARS were closed for a significant time period in the spring and early summer of 2020 and after re-opening there were significant restrictions on work force activities, travel, etc. that affected our ability to conduct research for this project. We also faced delays in hiring personnel to work on the project. Specifically, the postdoc hired at Cornell did not start until May and could not come into the lab until mid-summer. Restrictions associated with covid-19 pandemic continue to affect the efficiency of research, though we are still making good progress on our research objectives. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two postdocs have been working on serval aspects of this project. Both postdocs have learned about the biology and chemical ecology of spotted wing drosophila and experience with developing behavioral bioassays in the lab and conducting experiments under field conditions. Research technicians have gained valuable experience with chemical ecology techniques including methodology for working with volatiles and contact deterrents in the lab and in the field. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Since this project is only in its first year we have not had a lot of time to generate results that make sense to communicate to stakeholders. However, we have presented one talk during this reporting period to industry stakeholders summarizing overall research on repellents and including some initial results collected in this project. The reference for this presentation is below Loeb, G. 2019. In search of repellents to minimize the impact of spotted wing drosophila. 30 minute talk (via zoom) as part of the SWD summit held in Travers City Michigan for mostly cherry growers. Approximately 30 growers. Contact hours = 15. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period we will continue evaluating the efficacy of spatial repellents and contact oviposition deterrents under lab and field conditions. In the field, we will quantify ambient or canopy levels of volatile repellents in raspberry plots where we are releasing different levels of a spatial repellent (DCX). We will work on different approaches or methods of deploying spatial repellents and oviposition deterrents. We will begin developing research on combining attract and kill technology with spatial and/or oviposition deterrents. We will investigate how SWD adult behavior is affected by different repellents and deterrents to better under mechanisms. Using a combination of GC-EAD and behavioral assays we will attempt to identify the biologically active volatile compounds from the fungus Botrytis cinerea that reduce attraction to odor source that is normally very attractive to SWD adults.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Maintained research plantings of raspberries for field experiments to evaluate the effects of candidate repellents on spotted wing drosophila (SWD) infestations. This included pruning plantings so that they would produce a mid-summer crop and a fall crop in order to assess SWD at different times of the season. 2. Conducted lab experiments testing the efficacy of several new, candidate oviposition deterrents alone and in combination with DCX, which previously have shown acts as a spatial repellent. 3. Conducted field experiments to assess the individual and combined effects of DCX and two candidate oviposition deterrents on SWD infestation using single fruiting raspberry canes as unit of assessment (small scale). 4. Tested the efficacy of DCX at different release rates under field conditions at the scale of small plots of raspberries (6 m rows by 3 rows). 5. Developed methodology for evaluating ambient levels of DCX in the canopy of plots of raspberries with different release rates of DCX from plastic sachets.
Publications
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