| For 2020 and newer grants, please go to https://grants.ipmcenters.org/ |
|---|
|
|
| Home Current RFAs PD User Guide Projects Login |
|
Funded Project |
|
Funding Program:
IPM Enhancement Grants |
|
Project Title:
eFly: Southern Spotted Wing Drosophila Working Group |
Project Director (PD):
|
|
Lead State: NC Lead Organization: North Carolina State University |
| Undesignated Funding: $29,321 |
|
Start Date: May-01-2013 End Date: Apr-30-2014 |
|
Pests Involved: Spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii |
|
Site/Commodity: Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberri |
|
Summary:
Spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii, SWD), a profoundly devastating invasive pest of soft skilled fruit, has rapidly expanded its global range following its initial detection in California in 2008. This range expansion has been accompanied by dramatic crop losses (up 100% if left unmanaged) and significant increases in pesticide usage. Blueberries, caneberries (blackberries and raspberries), strawberries, and cherries have been the most significantly impacted crops, although the host range of SWD is believed to be broad. Research and extension activities are underway in SWD impacted areas, but coordination is necessary to avoid potential redundancy among the large number of engaged scientists and extension personnel. We propose to formalize a southern SWD working group, the establishment of which was supported in 2012 by a Southern Integrated Pest Management Center (SIPMC) Critical Issues Grant. Following the first meeting of this working group we have developed a draft impact statement; ranked research, extension, and education priorities; established an online collaboration mechanism; and determined that there is desire to continue these coordination efforts. Specifically, eFly: Southern Spotted Wing Drosophila Working Group will address the following objectives:
1. Facilitate coordination of SWD research, extension, and education activities; 2. Develop an eFly web page to coordinate regional information and connect with national information; 3. Rank and revise SWD research, extension, and education priorities, and 4. Maintain and update SWD impact statements in the eastern US. We anticipate that outputs from these objectives will enhance SWD knowledge in the south, facilitate future funding opportunities for prioritized SWD research and extension activities, reduce redundancy, and thereby, more efficiently address the long term management challenges posed by this invasive pest. Objectives: 1. Facilitate coordination of SWD research, extension, and education activities 2. Develop an eFly web page to coordinate regional information and connect with national information 3. Rank and revise SWD research, extension, and education priorities 4. Maintain and update SWD impact statements in the eastern US |
|
Final Report: |
|
Non-technical summary and Results Spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii, SWD), a profoundly devastating invasive pest of soft skilled fruit, has rapidly expanded its global range following its initial detection in California in 2008. This range expansion has been accompanied by dramatic crop losses (up 100% if left unmanaged) and significant increases in pesticide usage. SWD was first detected in the southeastern United States in 2009 and has since been detected throughout the southern region. The goals of our project were to 1. Facilitate coordination of SWD research, extension, and education activities; 2. Develop an eFly web page to coordinate regional information and connect with national information; 3. Rank and revise SWD research, extension, and education priorities, and 4. Maintain and update SWD impact statements in the eastern US. These goals were accomplished through an annual working group meeting and through several project activities throughout the year. |
|
Target audience The target audience of our project was scientists, extension personnel, and growers of SWD host crops. Participants in the January working group meeting included representatives from each of these groups (see attached supporting material). |
|
Activities / Events We addressed our project goals in several ways. First, to facilitate research, extension, and education coordination our project utilized a Basecamp project since 2012. However this project had grown to include participants with interests beyond our working group, including participants from outside the United States. Therefore, we developed a second Basecamp project (SWD Coordination) for the broad audience, which currently includes 88 participants, and a project specific to our working group (currently with 78 participants, some overlapping). We also held a working group meeting on January 8-9th, co-located with the Southeastern Fruit & Vegetable Expo in Savannah, GA. This venue was selected to allow for greater stakeholder participation, but weather-related travel issues limited the number of attendees. Thirty-five working group members participated in all or part of the meeting, which consisted of state summary presentations; prioritization of research, extension, and education activities; and development of an impact assessment survey, which was distributed to stakeholders in early 2014. Second, we worked with the NC State University Extension IT team to develop an eFly Working Group website (swd.ces.ncsu.edu). We recognize that one of the limitations of this site is that it is housed on an NCSU platform. We selected this platform for ease of development; it utilizing an existing WordPress build; and because housing this content in the NCSU system ensures sustainability beyond the scope of our working group. The Extension IT group is committed to maintaining this site as long as it remains useful and updating it along with their other resources. Future versions of this site will be designed to be brand neutral , so that all working group participants are clearly represented. |
|
Outcomes We updated the project research, extension, and education priorities at the eFly Working Group meeting in January 2014. Because stakeholder participation at this meeting was less than in 2012, we elected to conduct an impact assessment survey. This survey was distributed as either an online questionnaire or in person paper surveys distributed at grower meetings held throughout the eastern United States from January 9 through February 22, 2014. In total, 87 respondents completed the survey online, and 162 respondents completed paper surveys. Meetings where paper surveys were distributed were held in AL, GA, MO, NC, NJ, and PA. The online questionnaire was made available at the eFly SWD Working Group website (swd.ncsu.ces.edu); emailed as a link to grower email lists, grower organizations, and cooperative extension agents; and was available from January 20 through February 28, 2014. A complete summary of our impact assessment survey and priority rankings is provided in our supporting material and is available at http://swd.ces.ncsu.edu/working-group-activities/swd-impacts-2013/. Our main project website has received over 2100 page views since launching in January 2014, and the most popular single news post, our 2013 SWD impact assessment survey was viewed over 1600 times. The results of our 2013 impact assessment survey have been viewed 209 times since they were posted on May 12, 2014. |
|
Impacts No other group in the United States has attempted to document the impact of SWD at the scale and detail which our working group has addressed. The numbers we have generated represent the only potential and actual impact assessment for SWD in the eastern US as a whole and have been used widely in grant proposals, resulting in necessary research and extension funding. |
|
Publications Project participants contribute to regional and state level integrated pest management recommendations and have used the information shared at working group meetings to inform these recommendations. Publications which our working group participants contribute to include the Southern Region Small Fruit IPM Guides (www.smallfruits.org), the Midwest Small Fruit and Grape Spray Guide (https://ag.purdue.edu/hla/Hort/Documents/ID-169.pdf), and state publications. |
|
Other Products / Outputs The project webpage (swd.ces.ncsu.edu) serves as our most visible output, and houses priority rankings, impact statements, and connects users with a range of both scientific and extension resources. Our project outputs have been also highlighted in trade publications, an example of which is include in the supporting material. |
|
Leveraged Funds Our laboratory has directly utilized the information generated through the eFly Working Group in multiple grant proposals, which have generated a total of $219,426 in research and extension support in the last two years. |
| Report Appendices |
| Close Window |
|
Southern IPM Center North Carolina State University 1730 Varsity Drive, Suite 110 Raleigh, NC 27606 p. 919.513.1432 f. 919.513.1114 |
 |
Developed by the Center for IPM © Copyright CIPM 2004-2025 |
|