Abstract
Spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), is one of the most detrimental pests of small fruit crops worldwide and its control relies heavily on pesticides, so there is a need to develop alternative management practices. Cultural practices that make the microclimate hotter, drier, and brighter than optimal conditions for the pest may be highly effective. In this two-year study, we evaluated how black, white, and metallic plastic mulches influence the raspberry plants’ microclimate to reduce D. suzukii larval infestation of fruit in the canopy and increase mortality of fallen larvae and pupae on the ground. All three plastic mulches reduced D. suzukii larval infestation of fruit by 40–72% and killed 80–100% of larvae and pupae placed on the mulch surface. The mechanisms at play are likely the compounded effects of increased ultraviolet (UV) light, hotter and drier conditions in the low canopy, and hot mulch surface temperature. UV light may be especially important since it reduced D. suzukii oviposition in the lab. Overall, plastic mulches can effectively modify the microclimate to make it less favorable for D. suzukii, reducing infestation in fruit and on the ground.
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Acknowledgements
This research was conducted on Ho-Chunk land in Dejope, which has been culturally and agriculturally important for Indigenous people since time immemorial. This land was forcibly ceded to the U.S. government and European settlers in the mid-nineteenth century. Through the Morrill Act of 1862, Land Grant Universities like the University of Wisconsin-Madison were established from the sale of stolen or forcibly ceded Indigenous land. We recognize that these institutions have built enormous wealth from Indigenous land and have contributed to the formation of today’s industrialized agricultural system that favors wealthy, White farmers and corporations while marginalizing farmers who are Indigenous, Black, people of color, queer, and poor. We also recognize that agricultural research at these Land Grant Universities centers Western science while undervaluing Indigenous knowledge and underserving Indigenous and other marginalized people. It is critical that land-based researchers continually evaluate how their research and outreach work benefits from stolen land and how it may perpetuate colonialism. We challenge all people doing research in agricultural systems to evaluate who benefits from their work and who is excluded, and to engage in the process of decolonizing their science by centering marginalized farmers, social justice, and land sovereignty. We are grateful to Niko Schmitt, Jarret Miles-Kroening, and Rachel O’Neill Lewis for their contribution to field and lab work. We thank Philip Townsend, Beckett Hills, and Ben Spaier for assistance with radiance measurements. We are grateful for Steven Van Timmeren and Rufus Isaacs for fly colony help. We appreciate donations of supplies by Nourse Farms, Imaflex, and Organix Solutions.
Funding
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (DGE-1747503). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. This work was also supported by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (18-01), the UW-Madison Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program Graduate Student Grant (H006607430), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems Graduate Student Mini-Grant.
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Supplementary file 1: Video of lab-reared Drosophila suzukii larvae placed on black plastic mulch in the field. Larvae struggle to crawl on the plastic mulch surface due to the temperature and texture, and visibly desiccate quickly (MOV 21870 kb)
Supplementary file 2: Video of field Drosophila suzukii larvae emerged from fallen raspberry on white plastic mulch. Larvae struggles to crawl away from the fruit and seems to desiccate (MOV 89947 kb)
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McIntosh, H., Smith, M.B., Weissner, M. et al. Modifications of plant microclimate by plastic mulches reduces Drosophila suzukii infestation. J Pest Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-023-01715-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-023-01715-4