Project number: 26.30.16.05.09_Popillia
Understanding and management of the Japanese beetle in the near term
The invasive Japanese beetle is present in Switzerland since 2017 and despite eradication measures, it continues to colonise our country. This quarantine organism has a wide host spectrum and attacks grapevines, fruit trees, berries, vegetables, field crops and grasslands. For Switzerland, experts estimated the annual revenue losses caused by this scarab in the range of 10 to several 100 million CHF. This pest therefore poses one of the greatest challenges to plant production, greenkeepers and Swiss authorities in recent years.
In this project we intend to close knowledge gaps in order to recommend effective plant protection strategies against this new pest for the different agricultural sectors that foster sustainable revenues to Swiss producers and are in line with FOAG’s Crop Protection Strategy 2035. We thus examine if the existing scientific knowledge also applies to Switzerland, how the landscape affects its spread and damage, if eDNA can be used for early detection, how its economic and ecological impact can be mitigated, and how alternative control measures such as biocontrol agents, mass-traps, nets, mulching, push-pull or spot spraying can be optimised and implemented.
