Summary

Red palm weevil (RPW) Rhynchophorus ferrugineus; two stink bugs, the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) Halyomorpha halys and the painted bug Bagrada hilaris; spotted wing drosophila (SWD) Drosophila suzukii are 4 alien pest species highly invasive. They have in common the area of origin (East Asia) and a biological life cycle designed to make their control difficult to be achieved by using conventional chemical approaches. In this work we are proposing an integrated pest management strategy with new Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) approaches, based on: a) the use of mass trapping instead than mass rearing for the RPW and bagrada bug; b) the synergism between SIT and biological control to produce “sterile SIT sentinel eggs” suitable for oviposition and larval survival of egg parasitoids of BMSB; c) reproductive interference with males of a different species to impact the demography of SWD.
Keywords: Sterile Insect Technique; Pests; Biological Control; Egg Parasitoids; Sentinel Eggs.

Massimo Cristofaro Curriculum Vitae

Massimo Cristofaro has more than 40 years of experience in biological control of weeds and 30 years in biological and integrated control of insect pests. He is conducting foreign explorations for prospective biological control agents throughout Eurasia and Africa Countries. In the year 2000, he set up the BBCA (Biotechnology and Biological Control Agency), a non-profit Foundation that gathers young researchers with common interests in developing eco-compatible strategies to control weeds and insect pests. Since 2014 he is member of the Italian National Academy of Entomology.  Since 2018 he is teaching Applied-Entomology at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”.

Biotechnology and Biological Control Agency (BBCA), Roma, Italia
m.cristofaro55@gmail.com