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Decision Support Tools to Improve the Management of Root-Feeding Fly Pests of Vegetables

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Rosemary Collier considers the methods used to monitor and forecast the occurrence of root-feeding flies as a basis for decision-making by growers and the ways that such information can be applied.

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This video video summarizes a review paper resulting from a collaborative European Union project focused on controlling root-feeding fly pests that damage vegetable crops. The paper emphasizes integrated pest management (IPM), which promotes using various control methods to minimize or eliminate reliance on insecticides and fungicides. Key strategies include monitoring pest activity through traps and developing forecasting systems based on temperature to predict pest outbreaks. The review discusses the impacts of climate change on pest behavior and distribution, noting that increasing temperatures may affect the phenology of species like the carrot fly, potentially shifting their geographic ranges. It highlights the benefits of decision support tools for farmers, such as improving treatment targeting, reducing unnecessary treatments, and ultimately benefiting the environment. The paper also notes the practical application of these tools by farmers and highlights ongoing developments in forecasting systems that aim to enhance monitoring for specific pests. Overall, it outlines the significance of using integrated pest management strategies and decision support tools to improve pest control practices in European agriculture.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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This paper, which was a review paper, was, one

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of the outcomes of a, a collaborative,

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European Union project.

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So involved a number of,

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of partners from different European countries.

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And our, our focus, was,

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a number of species of fly

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that attack vegetable crops.

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And all of those species, some

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of them are quite closely related to each other.

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Um, but all of those species, the way

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that they cause damage to vegetable crops is

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through their larvae, which generally feed on the roots

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of the vegetable crops,

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which is why we call them root feeding fly pests.

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Some of the pests will also sometimes feed on the,

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the foliage as well.

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And we were focusing on

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all of the approaches that you might use to control these

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fly pests,

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but particularly looking at approaches that you might use

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either, to completely avoid the use of insecticides

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or to reduce the use of fungicides.

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And so the approach that, that we have been aiming for is

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what people call integrated pest management, which is a,

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quite a well known term, which means

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what I've just said, that, that when you are considering how

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to manage a pest or, or a disease or,

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or even weeds, you think about all the tools

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that are available to you, together with insecticides.

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And as far as possible, you try to manage that pest,

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by using those other tools

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and then using insecticides if absolutely necessary.

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Our focus, as I've said, was,

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was integrated pest management.

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A key, component of integrative pest management is

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that you actually make yourself aware of when the pests

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that you, you are interested in are active

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and how many of them are active so that you can actually,

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target your, your management, your, the, the treatments

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that you might apply.

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Um, and so the basically two approaches

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that we were thinking about, one is when you,

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you are monitoring the pests,

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so you are actually following their numbers,

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their activity in real time.

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And generally with the, the species

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that we were focusing on, we would do that

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through trapping adult insects in crops.

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So we would be generally attracting the insects,

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the traps using, using the color of the trap.

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So, each of the species we, we looked at had a sort

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of preferred color range.

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So you would use traps of that color.

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Um, you would actually capture them either

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by drowning them in dishes of water, so colored dishes

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of water or by capturing them on, on sticky traps.

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Um, in the case of, a couple of species,

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you might also monitor them by sampling for eggs.

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So all of those species lay their eggs on the soil

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close to the base of the, the plants

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that they're going to infest.

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So you would actually take samples of soil from

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around the bottom of the plants,

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and then float out the eggs in water

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and count them aside from monitoring.

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So as I said, monitoring is in real time,

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so you are following pest activities.

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It happens, it, it's very useful though for farmers

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and growers to have some idea of when

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large numbers of pests are going to arrive.

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So a number of us involved in this collaborative project,

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we have developed, forecasting systems

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for particular pest insects,

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and they generally use temperature

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because temperature determines the rate at which

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most insects develop.

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So they're basically, weather based forecasts

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that use temperature to predict when large numbers

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of the pests are likely to arrive in crops.

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So both monitoring

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and forecasting information can be used to

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inform decision support.

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Um, and by decision support we mean that,

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we make this information or, or,

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or growers collect this information through,

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through monitoring and

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through forecasts about pest activity.

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And that then enables them,

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to improve the decisions they make about when

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and whether they apply certain,

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certain treatments which might be insecticides

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or might be other ways of managing the pest insects,

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climate change, at least in the, the areas that,

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that we are working in.

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So, so basically Northern Europe, the impact

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of climate change, one impact is, will be to increase,

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average, average temperatures.

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Um, obviously there are other impacts as well in terms of,

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of rainfall, the distribution of rainfall likely to,

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to change, and also the occurrence extreme events.

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But in terms of the pest insects that, that we considered

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changes in temperature are probably going

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to be most important in terms of their phenology.

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Um, so the timing of their life cycle in different years

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and also their geographic distribution.

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And, and really the, the impacts depend on the,

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on the species and

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where they are currently distri distributed,

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it's quite likely.

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So one of the species that we looked at was the carrot fly,

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which, does what the name suggests

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and attacks carrot crops

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and that that insect, does not,

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do well in very high temperatures.

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Um, so when temperatures are high in the middle

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of the summer,

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particularly the egg stage is very susceptible to,

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to desiccation and high temperatures.

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So I can see that in future maybe the,

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the distribution

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of the carrot fly will gradually move Northwoods

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because it won't, won't be able to do so well in the,

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the warmer parts of its of its current range, at least

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two, maybe more of the species can also what we call east

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of eight, which means that when it's very hot

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in the summer, they can actually do the sort

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of the reverse of hibernation,

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so they can actually become dormant for a while,

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until temperatures go down again.

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So that will also affect their phenology,

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because you might get a period in the summer where

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the flies are inactive

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because they're, they're tating in the pupil stage,

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and then once it cools down at the end of the summer,

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you'll get another, burst of, of activity.

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There are two major benefits from,

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the use of decision support tools.

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Um, I guess both are are benefits for, for the farmers,

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but but also for wider for the public and, and,

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and citizens in general.

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Um, the first thing is that that decisions support

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enables control methods to be targeted effectively.

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Um, so from an economic point of view, hopefully farmers

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and growers are getting the best value outta the treatments

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that they, they do apply.

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Um, also if you target treatments

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and if you know when to apply them, then

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that will probably reduce the number

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of unnecessary treatments that are applied,

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which also has an impact on costs.

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And obviously if those treatments are insecticides,

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if you can reduce the number of insecticidal treatments,

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then that's a great benefit, for the environment.

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This paper was a review of all the,

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the decision support tools

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and their potential, to improve management of these,

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fly pests in vegetables in, in Europe.

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And, in fact, quite a few of them are

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already used regularly by farmers and and growers.

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So they are already having impact through their,

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through their practical and, commercial use.

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Actually since the, the, the paper was written,

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there have been further developments.

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So, in, in the UK we've been working on,

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another forecasting system

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and improve monitoring for one of the species,

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which is the bean seed fly.

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Um, so that is beginning to have an impact in terms

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of protecting the crops that, that, that species,

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affects.

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And we're also, I think has pointed out in the paper some

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of the software that, in which some

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of the forecasting systems have been developed is, is sort

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of getting heading old.

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So actually, for some of these, forecasts,

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there has been a recent European project on, on

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decision support systems and we've been able to incorporate,

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the UK versions of those models into this new software,

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which is available to, well, anybody in the world.

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Um, basically. Um, so yeah,

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so there's been impact in the past

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and I think there will be impact in the future.

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