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From Twitter

05 August 2024
Pest management
#IPMPopillia
Pupils from class 2D had a good intuition! In fact, the Fungzuka device is being tested by CREA's researchers since summer 2023. The "Fungzuka" is an "Attract-Infest-Release" device that is conceived to bring adult Popillia japonica insects in c...
10 July 2024
Citizen Science
#IPMPopillia
Monitoring
In recent months, the IPM Popillia Consortium has collaborated with SPOTTERON to create informational and dissemination materials about the invasive Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica), which has been spreading across Europe for several years. R...
10 June 2024
Citizen Science
#IPMPopillia
Prof. Francesco Nardi (University of Siena) and Prof. Rossella Annoni (junior high school G. Falcone, Cassina de' Pecchi, Milan) have been working together, this past year, with class 2D (12-13 years old pupils) on Popillia within the context of the ...

Young minds got it right!

hF_HrFme Fungzuka device
Pupils from class 2D had a good intuition! In fact, the Fungzuka device is being tested by CREA's researchers since summer 2023. The "Fungzuka" is an "Attract-Infest-Release" device that is conceived to bring adult Popillia japonica insects in contact with the spores of an entomopathogenic fungus and let them fly away carrying with them their ...
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  689 Hits
689 Hits

Citizen Science Dissemination for Popillia japonica

IPM_InfoSheet_Mockup01_HD
In recent months, the IPM Popillia Consortium has collaborated with SPOTTERON to create informational and dissemination materials about the invasive Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica), which has been spreading across Europe for several years. Recently, the materials were published and sent to contacts in the agricultural sector and plant heal...
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  809 Hits
809 Hits

Young minds at work

francesconardi Trap model proposed by the students of class 2D
Prof. Francesco Nardi (University of Siena) and Prof. Rossella Annoni (junior high school G. Falcone, Cassina de' Pecchi, Milan) have been working together, this past year, with class 2D (12-13 years old pupils) on Popillia within the context of the dissemination program 'a scientist as pen-friend'. Pupils have been engaged on the daily practices o...
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  903 Hits
903 Hits

Popillia grub detectives at work in Zurich

Pj-rubs-Hunting_Zurich2 PopilliaJaponica_grub-detectives
Since 2023, the village of Kloten north of Zurich is not only famous for the Zurich Airport and for having a great ice hockey team, but also for harboring the first Popillia population in Europe north of the Alps. In summer and autumn of 2023, huge efforts were made to eradicate this population, including insecticide sprays, the erection of LLINs-t...
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  757 Hits
757 Hits

Conference Folder for the Citizen Science Conference in Pisa 2023

SPOTTERON_IPMPopillia_PrintingFolder
SPOTTERON designed a folder for IPM Popillia for the Italian Citizen Science Conference in Pisa, which we attended last weekend. This folder serves as an introduction to the project for fellow Citizen Science initiatives and individuals potentially interested in becoming Citizen Scientists. It includes key details about the project, insights on&nbs...
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  1723 Hits
1723 Hits

Developmental Stage Photos of the Japanese Beetle from Our Laboratory

IPMPopillia_Header_stagelarvae_SPOTTERON
We are beyond excited to share developmental stage photos of the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) directly from our laboratory experiment.  The Japanese beetle undergoes three larval stages, which means that the larvae do not grow steadily but develop three times until they pupate and finally emerge as adult beetles. We ...
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  1663 Hits
1663 Hits

General Assembly and ECE in Heraklion 2023

imageheader3 group picture of the attendees
From October 18ā€“20, 2023, members of the IPM Popillia consortium came together in Heraklion, Greece, for the yearly General Assembly of the IPM Popillia project. The event provided the possibility of gaining insight into and learning about the progress and developments made in the different interdisciplinary work packages of the project. At the sam...
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  1343 Hits
1343 Hits

Visualizing insights in our science communication: infographics for Citizen Scientists

IPM_LifeCycle_Header2_EN_DO-08-09 Life Cycle P.Japonica
For some time now, we have opened up our Popillia Japonica research to Citizen Science. With the support of volunteer Citizen Scientists, we are trying to gather more information about the distribution of the Japanese beetle through the IPM Popillia's Citizen Science App. Invasive species such as the Japanese Beetle pose a severe threat to biodiver...
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  1383 Hits
1383 Hits

How polyphagous is the Japanese beetle? Spoiler: over 400 host plants!

INRAE_DSC_0743
We thought it would be useful to update the list of P. japonica host plants. In this respect, the dataset deposited by Tayeh et al. (2023) serves two purposes: (1) to provide a list of the host plants of Popillia japonica via a comprehensive review of the scientific literature; (2) to classify these host plants as main or secondary host, based on t...
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  1135 Hits
1135 Hits

Automated reporting of Japanese beetle observations to national authorities within the IPM Popillia Citizen Science App

SPOTTERON_IPMPopillia_ReportingSystem_Cover_01
Regulatory reporting  of invasive alien species or controlled pests such as the Japanese beetle to national authorities can be challenging for citizens. Therefore, in the IPM Popillia Horizon 2020 project, the "Automated Reporting System" (ARS) was developed by SPOTTERON for the IPM Popillia Citizen Science App to process automated reports and...
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  1012 Hits
1012 Hits

First outbreak of Japanese beetle north of the alps

DO_Headerbild_NorthernAlps_DO Japanese Beetle detected in the north of the alps
Europe is facing the first Japanese beetle outbreak north of the alps. The phytosanitary service of Zurich in Switzerland has detected Popillia japonica in monitoring traps and on herbs and shrubs in an area close to the airport of Zurich. The deliminated infested zone is rather small, and the low numbers of beetles caught indicate that the outbrea...
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  1385 Hits
1385 Hits

Updated interactive map of the Japanese beetle invasion in Continental Europe

IPM Popillia Map
Here's our updated map illustrating the dynamics of the ongoing invasion of the Japanese beetle in Continental Europe.  This current version (V3, June 2023) includes regions Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Valle Aosta (Italy), and Ticino (Switzerland) over the period 2015-2022. The map captures the dynamics of the invasion at the...
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  2671 Hits
2671 Hits

Popillia japonica documentary on SRF Wissen

IPM_Blog02_Header_v03_DO-2 Popilla japonica contribution on SRF Wissen
After the Azores and Italy, the Popillia japonica beetle is already present in Switzerland. SRF Wissen has recently published a documentary about invasive species in Europe, that vividly shows how important research and methods are when it comes to tackle the problem. Agroscope, coordinator of the Horizon 2020 project IPM Popillia, is rep...
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  996 Hits
996 Hits

The Big Field Experiment

JHMU771_20221114-201000_1 Working in the field with the Swiss Alps in the background
In September 2021 we started the big field experiment in the Piedmont region, a highly infested zone. Giovanni Bosio from the plant health service of the Piedmont region found meadows which were not treated yet and with willing owners to let us do experiments with different biological control agents (BCA). We treated the meadows with 2 different st...
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  1454 Hits
1454 Hits

Effects of test treatments on P. japonica gene expression

pop_post
In collaboration with colleagues from CREA (Florence), we have treated popillias with three experimental control protocols that appear as promising candidates in their hands. Treated popillias have been snap frozen for molecular analysis. In the next months we will evaluate the effects of different treatments in terms of gene expression. With these...
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  1761 Hits
1761 Hits

Field work for an economist

Field work
Definitely not my ususal workweek! I am an economist at the Technical University of Munich, usually sitting in an office with a computer and conducting research there. But not this timeā€¦ As I am part of the IPM Popillia project, which consists of an interdisciplinary research team, I was invited by our partner Agroscope to join them in th...
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  1394 Hits
1394 Hits

Interactive map of the Japanese beetle's invasion in Continental Europe

Interactive map of the Japanese beetle's invasion in Continental Europe
The Japanese beetle was accidentally introduced to mainland Europe and detected for the first-time near Milan (Italy) in 2014. As a quarantine insect pest, its populations are strictly monitored. However, we did not find a map illustrating the dynamics of the ongoing invasion. So, we produced it! At first, the interactive map that we make available...
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  4725 Hits
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4725 Hits

Another Day in the Field

Vercelli - Football field Vercelli - Football field
We need more larvae, a lot more larvae! That's our mission, our first in this year. This time we were headed to a field in Vercelli, Piedmont. While driving, the bus would shake and make weird noises when applying the brakes which is why we stopped a first time to inspect our tires and a second time at a mechanics to let him check properly.  W...
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  1565 Hits
1565 Hits

A day in the field

Mottalcia Picture by Mathias Hess
To continue with experiments in the lab, we needed more Japanese beetle larvae, a lot more. So we decided to go on a field trip on the 7th of December 2021.   It was the first train of the day which took me to Agroscope where we headed off to Mottalciata, Piedmont region. With two cars and seven people, we left freezing cold Switzerland in hop...
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  1458 Hits
1458 Hits

Growth in a giant steel grub: Mass production of insecticidal nematodes

Growth in a giant steel grub: Mass production of insecticidal nematodes
Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) are naturally occurring in the environment and make their living by infecting, killing and propagating in insects. They can be used as biological control agents against Popillia japonica larvae. The mass production is done in artificial medium by the partner e-Nema. Here a short video on how this mass production wor...
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  1488 Hits
1488 Hits

App Download Links (QR-Codes)

Android
(Google Play) 

qrcode app Popillia googleplay

iPhone
(Apple App Store) 

 qrcode appPopillia appstore

 EU Flag This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 861852

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