Population monitoring, distribution and evaluation of the pest status for Drosophila suzukii in Georgian crop systems

Project outline

As a result of the pylot project developed by the USAID AG program, the National Food Agency (NFA) and Trécé Company, the presence of well established population of an invasive pest insect Drosophila suzukii was conrifmed in blueberry and strawberry fields in four selected sites of Westerns Georgia in 2020.

Based on the project outcomes broad scale investigation will be initiated in order to evaluate distribution and population size of this pest insect in Georgian crop systems. Also local natural enemies of D. suzukii will be investigated for the future perspective of biological control of this pest insect. The invetigation will cover major agricultural regions of Georgia and envelope various agricultural crops known as preferable host plants for D. suzukii. These crops will include berries (blueberry, strawberry), small stone fruit (cherries) and winegrape.

The project also aims to find potential to the biological control of SWD. Although there number of potential biological enemies that can be considered as the effective agents against D. suzukii, no studies were initiated yet in this deirection. Therefore the project promisses interesting findings for future biological control of this pest insect

Presented pilot project is to establish long term strategy for monitoring and effective management of invasive species in the country.

The main goals of the project are:

· To investigate distribution of D. suzukii in major agricultural regions of Georgia.

· To evaluate population size of D. suzukii in studied crop systems.

· To develop list of susceptible crops and evaluate the level of fruit damage.

· Develop effective monitoring systems for this agricultural pest in Georgia by using modern traps and lures.

· Study fluctuations of the population of D. suzukii in experimental sites and evaluate effectiveness of provided pest management activities.

· Create recommendations for farmers for effective management of D. suzukii.

· Establish monitoring based IPM scheme for D. suzukii.

· Search for the local natural enemies of D. suzukii for future biological control perspectives

Project timeline

February – March 2021: identification of crop systems, purchase of monitoring traps, all necessary chemicals (alcohol) and containers

April – October 2021: field works and data collection

November - December 2021: Data analyses and generation of the final report

Project participants

Project will be implemented and supervised by Prof. George Japoshvili and Prof. Maka Murvanidze from Agricultural University of Georgia. Students of regional universities will be actively involved in field works (see below). Project will be supported by regional staff of NFA

Methodology

Experiment design

Five field monitoring sites and key host crops are selected with the agreement of NFA. They cover the major agricultural regions of the country and various crop systems including berries, stone fruit and grape:

Kakheti region – major vine producing region. Key wine grape varieties – Saperavi and Rkatsiteli. Four plots in total: three vineyards and one strawberry field

Distance between individual plots will be not less than 5km. Size of each plot will be not less than 5ha. 5 peromone traps will be installed in each site and the traps will be checked weekly on the presence of pest insect. The captured insects will be collected and preserved in 96 % ethanol.

Laboratory treatment will involve species identification and counting of the number of captured individuals of D. suzukii (SWD).

Involvement of USAID/AG interns and students from regional universities

The students from Tbilisi and regional universities (Sh. Rustaveli Batumi State University, A. Tsereteli Kutaisi State University, I. Gogebashvili Telavi State University) will be actively involved in project flow by:

a) Weekly monitoring of D. suzukii populations in open fields.

b) Weekly replacement of lures in all traps as indicated by manufacturer.

c) Collecting and preserving captured insects.

d) Colelcting and sorting of fruit samples fro fruit evaluation

e) Generation of weekly reports after each field trial.

As a result of student’s activities there is a possibility to develop bachelor and master thesis