Implementation of innovative Med traps at pilot scale
The action will last two years and its main objective is the development of an Integrated Strategy (IS) through a two-years implementation of the Biodelear at two pilot citrus orchards. The developed IS will be confirmed and / or adjusted during the following real application of action B2.
Method employed:
The pilot application test will take place during the fruiting seasons in 2015 and 2016 in one citrus orchard of 1ha together with a control application test also in a citrus orchard of 1ha (selected during action A2), for the comparison of the efficacy of the protection against med flies.
The Implementation of the Integrated Pest Management would take place in the Campos area of the island of Chios, which is a well-known place in Greece for the cultivation of citrus such as mandarins and oranges so the whole project would be a live demonstration to the surrounding citrus growers. In the light of this clarification, there will be an active involvement of the local growers, who have also exhibited great interest on the project and expect net benefits from the implementation of the innovative products (production of products that are safe for the humans and the animals, improved protection against med fly insects using non toxic means, low cost and environment friendly traps). The beneficiaries will approach Agricultural Cooperative Citrus Growers of Chios, which has a number of 350 citrus growers in the Kampos of Chios and will inform the citrus growers about our project and therefore the manifested participation in our project would be of great coverage. The two citrus orchards of the 1ha (pilot and control citrus orchards) for the implementation in the above action B1 will be chosen to be the most representative of them and separated very well with a great distance to each other so will not be any influence to each other for the implementation of the protection from the med fly insects.
Biodelear will be used in one of the two pilot fields at proper quantities (17g or 51g or 85g) depending on the previous experience of the Beneficiaries and on the results of action A1. Biodelear will be used with 90 traps of International Pheromones (IP) Mc Phail-type for the reduction of the med fly population together with a surfactant of 10% of propylene glycol as a killing device.
The control field will be protected from the med fly population using Uni-Pack Biolure attractant (a commercial product) in 90 traps of International Pheromones (IP) Mc Phail-type and a surfactant of 10% of propylene glycol as a killing device, of protecting the orchard by the conventional way in the absence of use of insecticides in the canopy of the citrus trees.
In order to develop the IS in a sound way, some more complementary activities will be carried out, i.e. monitoring, male annihilation and field sanitation since these techniques are complementary to mass trapping technique.
The monitoring of the med fly population and the male annihilation will be attained by using, 9 Jackson traps which will be placed on each of the two tested orchards using as an attractant the Capilure, plus a sticky board to catch the flies entering the trap, which will be placed at the bottom of the trap.
In both fields, the fallen crops will be collected and placed in closed special place to restrict the escape of the emerging adult insects to the field environment to attain field sanitation.
All the traps will be placed in the following way: Most of the traps will be placed perimetrically and few in the centre of the tested orchard and will be hung in the same pattern, i.e. more than 10 meter apart and at eye level. All the traps will be checked every week and all the flies will be counted, sexed, identified and removed. All the International Pheromones (IP) Mc Phail-type of traps will be served every eight weeks (replacement of the attractants and the surfactants with new ones) and the Jackson traps with the sticky board, the sticky boards will be, replaced with new ones every week or every two days depending on the present population of the med fly in the orchard. In all the International Pheromones (IP) Mc Phail-type traps the assessment of the beneficial insects attracted to the traps by the attractants will be examined, identified and quantitatively measured.
Citrus crops will be collected from both orchards to assess fruit infestation at the end of the harvest in all the fruiting seasons during the tests. The percentage of fruit infestation will be examined so to establish the efficacy of the action of the innovative attractant Biodelear. In each tested citrus orchard sampling will be started at a randomly selected plant in the row and would be continued at a randomly selected plant interval along the row, with four citrus fruits selected from each plant. The fruits will be collected from the perimeter and the inner of the citrus orchard and taken in the lab for examination to determine if are infested by the med flies.
Soil quality, soil biological diversity and generally the biological diversity in the ecosystem of the citrus tree will be monitored periodically by performing soil sampling and analysis in the way explained in action A2. It is estimated that soil sampling will take place twice each year and 50 soil samples will be collected and analysed for each 1 ha citrus orchard.
The plant protection products also will be examined on the citrus fruits picked up in a randomly way as above with determination of the percentage fruit infestation on the two citrus orchards and will be examined by accredited laboratories at the end of the demonstration tests by the AUTH and UTH.
Finally, a 3rd sampling will take place in the two experimental citrus orchards of the 1 ha each at the end of action Bl to obtain a confirmatory result on the residues of pesticides, so in every acre (1/10 of an 1 ha) will be separated in four plots where each plot will contain about 6 trees. From every tree 2 fruits will be collected, so every plot will correspond to 12 fruits. Eventually for the 3rd sampling will be collected totally 80 samples (sample=plot; 40+40) to be analysed by the accredited laboratories of the PIB.
By this way, it would be possible to assess the efficacy of Biodelear in comparison with the control field and the results of Action A2.
Having evaluated the collected data, it would be possible to develop a specific Integrated Strategy to address med fly issue at local scale. The strategy will be developed for the specific conditions (environmental, climatic and social/economical) of the pilot island, which then (during action B2) will be extended to cover the entire country and then the Med area.
Constraints and assumptions:
The use of simple suppression techniques to reduce or eradicate fruit flies from an area where they are well established has proven insufficient in many cases, and consequently, most successful programs have resorted to the use of multiple suppression techniques. Therefore, the protection of the citrus orchards will be based entirely on the mass trapping technique (male annihilation & female trapping) and field sanitation without the complementary techniques of parasitoid use and sterile male technique of the med fly insects. Any needed use of trapping in urban backyards, which are med fly refuge will be possible if the neighbouring owners allow it to use their backyards as a protection shield for the tests
Beneficiary responsible for implementation: AUTH
Responsibilities in case several beneficiaries are implicated: SSIA, UTH, BPI
Expected results (quantitative information when possible):
1. Reduction of the percentage of fruit infestation under the threshold of 1%, which is the target for the citrus fruits producers so the fruits to be commercially viable.
2. Negligible impact on the biological diversity in the pilot orchard, where Biodelear will be used and also expected recovery of the biological diversity in the ecosystem, to the accepted natural levels.
3. The population of the med flies in the pilot orchards is expected to decline annually, due to the use of Biodelear (mass trapping technique) and the combining techniques (male annihilation and field sanitation).
4. An Integrated Strategy for the protection against med fly at local level, which will be environment friendly and safe for the products.
Indicators of progress:
1. Checking and counting on the male/female population of the med flies as well as counting and identifying any non-target insects attracted by the innovative attractant Biodelear and by commercial products (Biolure and Capilure) on all the traps (90 IP McPhail traps for Biodelear, 90 IP McPhail traps for Biolure and 18 traps for Capilure) (For the year 2015 during the end of the December of 2015 to January of 2016 and for the year 2016 during the end of the December of 2016 to January of 2017 will be assessed the efficacy of the Biodelear food attractant in comparison to the commercial Biolure food attractant and to the previous conventional ways of applications (bait cover sprays).
2. Assessment of citrus crops infestation (For the year 2015 the end of the December of 2015 and January of 2016 will be assessed the citrus crops infestation using the Biodelear food attractant in comparison to the commercial Biolure food attractant.
3. Collection and analysis of 50+50 soil samples (2000 analyses) Collections of soil samples for the year 2015 from December of 2015 to April of 2016 and for the year 2016 from December of 2016 to April of 2017.
4. Checking and measuring the biological diversity for the whole fruiting seasons for the two years of the implementation of the protection of the citrus orchards from the med fly insects.
5. Completion of the IS before the beginning of B2 action.
6. Confirmatory tests to verify the absence of pesticides in the demonstration areas of the two citrus orchards (1 ha each) (at the end of the fruit season of 2016 Collection of 40+40 samples).
Action A2: Preparatory monitoring of the demonstration areas <- PREV ΝΕΧΤ->Action B2: Implementation of innovative Med traps at real scale
