General and applied entomology investigations on the Asian bug Halyomorpha halys
Activities
The peculiar characteristics of the experimental facilities located in Tetti Grondana, and in particular the variety of plants present, both cultivated and spontaneous, allow the establishment and development of a rich entomofauna and consequently a high level of biodiversity.
This allows the study and collection of numerous species of insects, both phytophagous and useful, but also the observation of their coexistence in the same environment, a condition difficult to find in other agro-ecosystems that the need to be productive often makes more simplified.
In the three-year period 2017-2019, surveys were then conducted in the context of studies on the Asian bug Halyomorpha halys (eg projects HALY-ENd, BIOHALY, Observatory of the Asian bug).
In particular, they have been and will still be performed:
- inspections for the collection of both native and exotic bugs (precisely H. halys), for the preparation in the laboratory of mass farms from which to draw the individuals necessary for various experimental tests
- tests in corileti to evaluate the effectiveness of the Attract - & - kill technique on the containment of damage caused by the Asian H. halys bug using experimental pheromones (spring-summer 2017)
- full field release tests of an indigenous parasitoid of the genus Trissolcus (summer 2018); surveys to verify the possible establishment of the parasitoid (spring-summer 2019)
- research to ascertain the distribution and movements of H. halys in the agroecosystem and among the host plants during the season, from the exit from the wintering sites to the colonization of the crops present, by sampling (direct and with pheromone traps) and immunolabeling techniques recapture (spring-summer 2018)
- based on the results obtained in 2018, tests to evaluate the containment effectiveness of a strategy based on the use of experimental pheromones (high dosage) on early host plants and insecticide treatment by sampling and immunolabeling and recapture techniques (spring-summer 2019).