Agroscope, ENDURE’s Swiss partner, is to lead a €5.5 million project to develop sustainable strategies for controlling the quarantine pest, Japanese beetle. The pest was first detected on Switzerland’s southern border in 2017 and it threatens to spread further into Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe.
Agroscope says that both adult beetles and grubs are a threat to European agriculture. Grubs have a preference for feeding on the roots of grass species and inflict damage in meadows and pastures. Adult Popillia japonica beetles have an exceptionally wide host range encompassing more than 300 plant species, including important crops such as grapevine, maize and soyabean.
The European Union Horizon 2020 project is called Integrated Pest Management of the invasive Japanese Beetle, Popillia japonica – IPM-Popillia and will run for four years.
A 13-partner consortium has been assembled including universities and research institutes and biocontrol and IT SMEs. This multidisciplinary approach is designed to ensure scientific findings can be quickly implemented in practice as speed is of the essence in controlling Japanese beetle invasions. The project is being coordinated by Giselher Grabenweger, a researcher in Agroscope’s Ecological Plant Protection in Field Crops group.
Agroscope says: “Initial laboratory trials have shown that entomopathogenic fungi from Agroscope’s Strain Collection can also infect the Japanese beetle. Such fungi have been successfully used for years to control the native relatives of the Japanese beetle, notably the cockchafer. A similar strategy is now to be developed to control the introduced Japanese beetle.”
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