The soil-dwelling larvae of click beetles, wireworms (one is pictured right) are a big problem for a range of agricultural crops, including potatoes, maize and vegetables. Control is difficult because of their propensity to disappear deeper into the soil when upper soil conditions are unfavourable or when they need to moult or hibernate.

This difficulty is compounded by the fact that there are several different species in European agriculture, with different behaviours, biology and ecology. This means species-specific control measures are required.

The €870,000 ElatPro project, bringing together scientists from 14 different institutions in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, will be seeking to shed light on wireworm behaviour and biology and significantly improving current predictive models, with the aim of developing a DSS which can be applied in arable crops across Europe.

Scientists from Germany, Denmark and Spain will be collaborating in the €400,000 DSS-IWM project with the aim of developing an improved DSS to help farmers control weeds in maize and winter wheat. The DSS will take local conditions into account and should help deliver economic and environmental benefits through its ability to not only improve the timing and dosing of chemical treatments but also to offer mechanical options wherever possible.

Researchers will not be starting from scratch, as DSS are already available in Europe, but will be aiming to plug some important knowledge gaps. Specific tools, such as resistance management and economic calculations, will also be added to the DSS.

For more information:

• Read about the ElatPro wireworm project here
• Read about the DSS-IWM project here
• You can access the full list of projects here
• Visit the C-IPM homepage