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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Wapato, Washington » Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #315670
Title: Adding yeasts with sugar to increase the number of effective insecticide classes to manage Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in cherry

Author
item Knight, Alan
item BASOALTO, ESTEBAN - Southern University Of Chile
item Yee, Wee
item HILTON, RICK - Oregon State University
item Kurtzman, Cletus

Submitted to: Pest Management Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/6/2015
Publication Date: 8/1/2016
Citation: Knight, A.L., Basoalto, E., Yee, W.L., Hilton, R., Kurtzman, C.P. 2016. Adding yeasts with sugar to increase the number of effective insecticide classes to manage Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in cherry. Pest Management Science. 72:1482-1490.

Interpretive Summary: Developing management strategies for the spotted wing drosophila in cherry that can minimize the repeated use of one or two classes of broad spectrum insecticides is important to maintain pest susceptibility and reduce secondary effects on biological control. Researchers at the USDA, ARS, Yakima Agricultural Research Laboratory, Wapato, WA in collaboration with ARS researchers in Peoria, IL, and Oregon State University, evaluated the use of adding cane sugar and yeasts to two selective insecticides as feeding baits for flies. The effectiveness of both insecticides was improved with the addition of the baits. The addition of these baits can allow growers to use lower rates of insecticides and to avoid selection for resistance by the flies to the most commonly used materials.

Technical Abstract: Drosophila suzukii has become a major pest of fruit crops, including cherry in the western United States. We evaluated whether the addition of sugary baits could improve the efficacy of two classes of insecticides not considered to be sufficiently effective for this pest, diamides and spinosyns, in laboratory and field trials in cherry from 2012 to 2014. The addition of cane sugar alone or in combination with the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Aureobasidium pullans significantly improved the efficacy of both a diamide and spinosyn insecticide. Adding yeasts with the sugar increased the activities of the insecticides. The addition of unstabilized corn steeped liquor to either insecticide did not increase their efficacy. The addition of cane sugar with or without yeast can improve the effectiveness of diamide and spinosyn insecticides for spotted wing drosophila in cherry. Inclusion of these two insecticides in spotted wing drosophila management programs may alleviate the strong selection pressure currently being imposed on a few mode-of-action insecticide classes used by growers to maintain fly suppression over long continuous harvest periods of mixed cultivars.