Project: Semio-chemical traps for management of weevil and plant bug in organic strawberry and raspberry.

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.

Acronym	Softpest multitrap
Duration	01/01/2012 - 31/12/2014
Website	visit project website
Network	CORE Organic II
Call	First call of CORE Organic II

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	Bioforsk - Organic Food and Farming Division	Coordinator	Norway
2	East Malling Research	Partner	United Kingdom
3	Royal Institute of Technology	Partner	Sweden
4	University of Greenwich	Partner	United Kingdom
5	Bioforsk - Plant Health and Plant Protection Division	Partner	Norway
6	University of Copenhagen	Partner	Denmark
7	Agroscope IPV	Partner	Switzerland
8	Latvian Plant Protection Research Centre	Partner	Latvia