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The National Integrated Pest Management Coordinating Committee (NIPMCC) has released a series of whitepapers explaining how pests threaten the security of the U.S. food supply, how an IPM approach offers the most effective means of managing pests, and why ongoing investment in IPM research and extension is critical to keeping pace with the ever-evolving nature of these threats. These new issue papers discuss role of IPM in combating resistance and invasive species, safeguarding food supply, and minimizing economic losses.

Spotted-wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii), is an invasive fruit fly species that causes about $500 million in economic damage to fruit crops in the U.S. each year. A native to southeast Asia, it arrived in the U.S. in Hawaii in the 1980s and in the continental U.S. in California in 2008. It is now widespread through many parts of the U.S. and the world. In a new review article published last week in the Journal of Economic Entomology, Vaughn Walton, Ph.D., of Oregon State University and a multi-university team of experts have created a comprehensive look at how SWD management strategies are evolving to address these challenges.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture grant that funds part of Walton and colleagues SWD research stipulates that they work with industry influencers, and they have been doing this from the beginning. They bring technologies to industry and seek feedback on how well the technologies work in actual practice. "Federal funding is allowing us to listen to and serve our clients—the growers," Walton says. As the Journal of Economic Entomology paper details, many promising control strategies are being developed for this challenging and uniquely adaptable invasive species. With continued advances, researchers can hope that populations of SWD can be controlled and the damage they cause reduced.