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Research Project:
Alternatives to Chemical Control for Stored Product and Quarantine Pests of Fresh/dried Fruits and Nuts
Location:
Commodity Protection and Quality
Project Number: 5302-43000-031-00
Project Type:
Appropriated
Start Date: May 10, 2003
End Date: Apr 30, 2008
Objective:
The primary goal of the project is to develop non-chemical quarantine and postharvest control strategies for fresh and stored products that reduce losses caused by insects and other arthropods. Success of the project will result in reduced use of chemical pesticides, decreased environmental contamination, improved product quality, expanded export markets and elimination of trade barriers based on insect infestation. To meet this goal, six objectives have been identified:
1) Develop alternative physical controls including in-depth studies of treatment biology.
2) Develop basic biological and environmental data necessary for modeling survival, development, and reproduction of pest and beneficial populations as related to alternative treatment thresholds.
3) Develop innovative systems approaches and integrated pest management control strategies.
4) Develop pathogens and parasitoids as insect control agents.
5) Develop basic information on host-plant relationships and interactions to eliminate or reduce the need for specific quarantine treatments.
6) Develop detection systems based on physical properties, volatile chemicals, or biochemical probes to use these systems to make informed treatment decisions or separate uninfested commodity.Formerly 5302-43000-026-00D (4/03).
Approach:
Physical control treatment schedules for several important postharvest insect pests will be identified through laboratory bioassays, and confirmed under commercial storage conditions. Short-term, low temperature treatments will be evaluated for control of olive fruit fly in olives prior to transport to processing facilities. Novel heat treatments using radio frequency energy and vacuum treatments applied to product in flexible containers for postharvest dried fruit and nut pests will be developed. Commercial cold storage treatments for common storage insects of dried products will also be investigated. Studies of basic biology of pest species and their interactions with their environment under both orchard and storage conditions will be made. The capacity of olive fruit fly to survive throughout the year in the climatic extremes of California¿s Central Valley will be examined. Data on movement of the navel orangeworm in the field, and on population dynamics of and damage by the raisin moth and other raisin pests will be obtained. Combinations of cultural and harvesting practices, specialized chemical applications, and handling procedures will be developed to control olive fruit fly. Attract-and kill systems will be developed for control of nitidulid beetles in figs, and mating disruption systems will be refined for control of navel orangeworm. Low temperature storage will be developed as a method to control the egg stage of pyralid moths in stored products. Research will evaluate the ability of natural enemies (pathogens, parasitoids, and nematodes) to control stored product pests and olive fruit fly, and integrate the use of natural enemies with other production and processing technologies. Systems approaches will be developed from basic biological and treatment data showing sublethal effects in order to reduce the intensity and frequency of treatments for stored product and quarantine pests, particularly olive fruit fly and glassy-winged sharpshooter. We will optimize insect trapping efficiency and utilization in current monitoring technologies for olive fruit fly and stored product insects, and develop new technologies. We will focus on the new Indianmeal moth pheromone blend to optimize pheromone utility. Fundamental data, necessary for use of detection data as pest management tool, will be collected for raisins. Altered volatile profiles will be examined as a means of detecting infestation in bulk commodity. BSL-1; 01/20/02.
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