Early detection of hitchhiking pests requires the identification of strategic entry points via transport. Our INRAE team has developed a framework for achieving this in continental Europe for the Japanese beetle. Human-mediated dispersal has been responsible for its introduction into several continents over the last century, including Eur...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Some years ago, when I was in Kenya to carry out a part of my PhD program on the adaptations to terrestrial life in fiddler crabs, I slept in a bed protected by an insecticide net that prevented from mosquitos' bites and related diseases. At that time I would have never thought that one day I would have used them in my research! Nets a...
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...
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...
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 time… 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...
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...
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...
The Japanese beetle, historically present in Japan, managed to invade the United States of America during the 20th century and has recently been detected in both Canada and Europe. In Europe, the beetle has invaded almost all of the Azores islands (Portugal) and covers an area ranging from the north of Italy (Lombardia and Piemonte) to the south of...
Entomopathogenic fungi are micro-organisms naturally occurring in the environment, most of all in soil. They are natural parasites of insects that proliferate killing their host. Metarhizium is one of the most used ones in biological control. The CREA team has isolated a Metarhizium robertsii strain called 17/T02 ...
