Horticulture: Pheromone of Apple Sawfly: New Tool for Management of a Re-emerging Pest

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Apple sawfly, Hoplocampa testudinea, is a damaging pest of commercial apple trees. In unsprayed or organic orchards it can cause up to 90% crop loss. In conventional orchards, it has previously been controlled using broad-spectrum insecticides against other pests. Withdrawal of these is leading to re-emergence of apple sawfly as a serious pest.

Identification of the female sex pheromone of apple sawfly could provide the basis for development of new approaches to monitoring and control of this pest. The project partners have previously attempted to identify the pheromone, but have been unsuccessful due to difficulties in obtaining sufficient live insects for the work. Apple sawfly has only one generation per year and there are no known methods for laboratory culture. This short project will bring together academic and commercial partners in a concerted attempt to overcome this constraint.

At least five orchards previously infested with apple sawfly will be located. The academic and commercial partners will work together to optimise methods for isolation of larvae and pupae from the soil by sieving and/or flotation, and then collect and process larger soil samples. Larvae and pupae will be reared through to adults at NIAB and the process of pheromone identification will be started at NRI. It is unlikely that this will be fully completed within this project, but the results will provide a firm basis for identification of the pheromone and development of its use for management of apple sawfly in future projects. In addition, a network of traps for monitoring adult sawfly will be set up and damage assessed, providing new data on the distribution and phenology of this pest.

Academic partners are the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich and NIAB East Malling. Commercial partners are biocontrol company, Russell IPM, two agronomy groups, Avalon Ltd and Agrovista, and two organic apple growers, Mole End and Rudford Farm.