Area-wide management of Queensland fruit fly

Hazel Parry, research scientist in the Agroecology team at CSIRO, led a three-year Queensland fruit fly area-wide management (AWM) project (completed in 2018) with the aim to support the successful incorporation of Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) into the management of Queensland fruit fly (Qfly).  Qfly is a major pest of Australian horticultural crops, currently causing millions of dollars-worth of damage across Australia and it presents a major barrier to market access.  Three potential economically-viable implementation strategies for AWM including SIT of Qfly under conditions in southern regions of Australia were identified: outbreak eradication (and potentially maintenance of area freedom, should legislation allow); spatially-isolated contexts (including in support of industry-specific market access); and more effective management in an urban context than existing ad hoc approaches.  A summary of many of the economic, social and biophysical project findings targeted at the key stakeholders (area-wide management coordinators, commercial growers and backyard gardeners) can be found on the project website maintained by Hort Innovation.

 

 

Project partners included QUT, PIRSA and SARDI, Agriculture Victoria, NSW DPI, Wine Australia and BioFly (Israel).  The project was delivered by Hort Innovation (including the SITPlus consortium) in partnership with CSIRO, supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture & Water Resources as part of its Rural R&D for Profit program. Hort Innovation project code HIAL-047.

Papers you should read about this research:

Clarke, A. R., Merkel, K., Hulthen, A. D., and Schwarzmueller, F. (2019) Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae) overwintering: an overview. Austral Entomology, 58: 3– 8. https://doi.org/10.1111/aen.12369.

Mankad, A., Loechel, B. (2020) Perceived competence, threat severity and response efficacy: key drivers of intention for area wide management. J Pest Sci 93, 929–939. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-020-01225-7

Mankad, A., Loechel, B. & Measham, P.F. (2021) Barriers and facilitators of area-wide management including sterile insect technique application: The example of Queensland Fruit Fly. In Hendrichs, Jorge, Pereira, Rui, & Vreysen, Marc J.B. (Eds.) Area-wide Integrated Pest Management: Development and Field Application. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp. 669-692.

Mankad, A., Loechel, B. & Measham, P.F. (2017) Psychosocial barriers and facilitators for area-wide management of fruit fly in southeastern Australia. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 37, 67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-017-0477-z

Merkel, K, Schwarzmueller, F, Hulthen, AD, Schellhorn, N, Williams, D, Clarke, AR. Temperature effects on “overwintering” phenology of a polyphagous, tropical fruit fly (Tephritidae) at the subtropical/temperate interface. J Appl Entomol. 2019; 143: 754– 765. https://doi.org/10.1111/jen.12645

Schwarzmueller, F., Schellhorn, N.A. & Parry, H. (2019) Resource landscapes and movement strategy shape Queensland Fruit Fly population dynamics. Landscape Ecol 34, 2807–2822 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-019-00910-y

Schwarzmueller, F., Hulthen, A., Murray, J. and Parry, H. (2017) Spatially-explicit modelling of ecological processes in complex agricultural landscapes: connecting ‘artificial’ landscapes with ‘reality’. In Syme, G., Hatton MacDonald, D., Fulton, B. and Piantadosi, J. (eds) MODSIM2017, 22nd International Congress on Modelling and Simulation. Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand, December 2017 https://doi.org/10.36334/modsim.2017.G8.schwarzmueller

Parry H., Capon T., Clarke A., Crisp P, Hulthen A., Kandulu J., Kranz B., Loechel B., Mankad A., Measham P., Merkel K., Murray J., Reynolds O., Schellhorn N., Schwarzmueller F., Tam M., Tapsuwan S., van Klinken R., Whitten S., Williams D. (2019) Area-wide management guidelines for Sterile Insect Technique developed through interdisciplinary modelling research. In Elsawah, S. (ed.) MODSIM2019, 23rd International Congress on Modelling and Simulation. Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand, December 2019. https://doi.org/10.36334/modsim.2019.G3.parry

Tam  M., Capon T., Whitten S., Tapsuwan S., Kandulu J. & Measham P. (2020) Assessing the economic benefit of area wide management and the sterile insect technique for the Queensland fruit fly in pest-free vs. endemic regions of South-east Australia, International Journal of Pest Management, https://doi.org/10.1080/09670874.2020.1853274

Tapsuwan S, Capon T, Tam M, Kandulu J, Measham P & Whitten S (2020) Willingness to pay for area-wide management and sterile insect technique to control fruit flies in Australia, International Journal of Pest Management, 66:4, 351-367, https://doi.org/10.1080/09670874.2019.1652369

van Klinken, RD, Murray, JV, Garcia, JN, Clarke, AR. (2019) Scale-appropriate spatial modelling to support area-wide management of a polyphagous fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae). Ann Appl Biol. 175: 350– 362. https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12548