SPOTTED WING DROSOPHILA BIOLOGY, ECOLOGY, AND MANAGEMENT

We will determine the most effective sustainable region-appropriate management options for SWD. Management strategies will be based on the biology and ecology of SWD including its genetics, physiology, dispersal, landscape influences, and seasonal phenology and as well as relevant cropping systems. Optimal timing of treatments will be based on effective monitoring, efficacy of various chemical and alternative environmentally-friendly control options. All recommended strategies will be framed within their relevant economic and sociological settings. Information resulting from all complementary research will be archived in an online workspace to maximize information transfer nationally. The data and information sharing effort will be coordinated by a taskforce composed of members of established and new multi-state extension networks and personnel at the institutions of multistate participants. Information stored in the online database will be utilized to develop regional management recommendations, organize grower meetings, and produce factsheets, newsletters and peer-reviewed manuscripts. The development of new, relevant management options will allow growers and industries to mitigate the impact of SWD-related crop losses and will result in more environmentally and economically sustainable fruit production in the USA. At each annual meeting, the committee will present the current year's activities, and then discuss, share and coordinate SWD management issues, future research and extension needs, extension educational approaches, and novel applications within regional fruit production and home gardener/urban landscape systems. The annual meeting will provide a forum for research and extension liaisons throughout the country to discuss issues and coordinate responses. An annual report will be compiled to provide documentation of regional deliverables and accomplishments in SWD management during the past year. During this project, members of WERA1021 will organize at least one regional symposium at a branch meeting of the Entomological Society of America, a national symposium at the Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America that will be held in Portland, OR in November, 2014, and at the International Congress of Entomology meetings in 2012 (South Korea) and 2016 (proposed for Orlando, FL). These professional activities will: 1) expand information exchange beyond the WERA1021 membership. 2) address specific learning needs (monitoring, management, biology, ecology, economics, sociology), 3) provide professional development to stakeholders, 4) foster inter-agency and regional/national linkages, dialogue, learning and information dissemination, with an emphasis on designing and implementing sustainable management of SWD as it establishes endemic populations. Stakeholder involvement will be strongly encouraged.