Numerous species of Lepidoptera (moths) cause severe losses to agricultural crops in all tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions of the world and are considered among the most damaging pests of food and fibre crops worldwide. To date these pests have mainly been managed by injudiciously spraying large amounts of broad-spectrum, and often persistent insecticides. This approach remains unsustainable in view of the enormous direct and indirect economic, social and environmental consequences of the wide use of these insecticides. Sustainable management of these pests using insecticides is hampered by the rapid development of resistance to every newly developed insecticidal chemical. In addition, global increases in trade and travel have resulted in an alarming increase in the rate of transcontinental invasion by lepidopteran species, which threaten agricultural systems, markets, communities and biodiversity globally.
In view of the above, control tactics that are effective but friendlier to the environment such as the sterile insect technique (SIT) and the inherited sterility technique (IS) offer great potential. The SIT/IS aims at compromising the hereditary machinery of the targeted pest population, thereby reducing the overall fertility and productivity of that population. This autocidal pest control tactic requires the colonization and mass-rearing of the target pest species, the induction of sexual sterility in a large fraction of the insects by an appropriate dose of gamma radiation, followed by their release into the field on a sustained basis and in sufficient numbers to achieve appropriate sterile to wild insect over-flooding ratios. Wild virgin females that mate with released sterile males bear no offspring, and the target population’s progressively reduced replacement rate inevitably leads to either a diminished wild population or local or regional eradication.
The SIT/IS techniques have been used very successfully against a number of major lepidopteran pests such as the codling moth, the pink bollworm, the cactus moth, the Australian painted apple moth and the false codling moth. However, there is great potential for further expansion of the SIT/IS to target other key lepidopteran pests, and such expansion could be facilitated by increasing the quality of the released moths through substantial improvements in mass-rearing, handling, irradiation, shipping, release and field assessment activities.
These topics were addressed in this CRP and major contributions were made in the area of (1) the identification and quantification of factors and variables that affect the quality of the released insects, (2) the identification and development of new tools and methods to assess and predict the field performance of sterile insects and (3) the improvement of the artificial rearing of several moth species through a better understanding and management of genetic resources.
Seventeen researchers from Argentina, Australia, Chile, China, India, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Syria, Tunisia and the USA participated in the CRP, conducting their research on 13 Lepidoptera species that are potential targets for SIT/IS.
The results of the six-year CRP are being published in 25 papers in a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Florida Entomologist.
For more information, please see the CRP description:
http://www.dgdingfa.net/projects/crp/d41022
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