10102248FLYTHRIVE: Fly-Led Yield Thriving in Horticulture with Integrated Vision and EcologyActiveCollaborative R&DInnovate UKBerries are an important part of our diets, contributing a variety of antioxidants, vitamins and fibre. The UK berry production contributed £633M to the economy in 2021\. Increasingly aggressive pests and diseases challenge growers, with aphid infestations attacking crops growing under tunnels and glass, and even in vertical farming environments where chemical usage can be even less effective and presents threats to workers. Recent withdrawal of several chemical pesticides has accelerated the demand for new pest management solutions. UK fruit growers are being driven towards more sustainable solutions for pest control by legislation and public attitudes that demand more environmentally friendly solutions that minimise residues on fruit and address biodiversity gains that reverse the decline in insects. Use of parasitoid wasps supported by the few approved pesticides provides unreliable or short-term solutions, especially as the plant canopy density increases. Other biologicals such as lacewing and ladybird larvae releases are less mobile, labour intensive to deploy, and difficult to target at areas of infestation. Olombria has expertise in the use of hoverflies as an integrated pollination solution for fruit. Hoverflies adults are highly mobile and can be encouraged using attractants and other cues to seek out and lay eggs in aphid colonies, even in dense foliage. Their larvae are voracious predators, consuming many hundreds of aphids during their short life. With automated monitoring of predators and the use of natural lures to target location and behaviour, this would eliminate the costs of 'spot-treating' colonies with less mobile biological controls. This project will test and develop bespoke UK native hoverfly species blends to control a range of aphid species that damage berry crops grown under protection. New Machine-Learning Vision-Systems and active lures will be developed to adapt targeting of hoverflies at a much earlier stage of infestation.