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• 4 years programme (2020-2024)
• 5.5 M€
• Coordinator: Giselher Grabenweger (Agroscope). For IGEPP: Sylvain Poggi (WP1 leader).
• Contact: sylvain.poggi@inrae.fr

Project summary:

The Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica, is one of the worst invasive pests of North America. Costs to control the pest in the US exceed $450 million per year. P. japonica was detected near Milano in 2014, and is now starting to spread in Europe. It is an enormous threat to Europe, since (1) it can feed on more than 300 host plants, including many important crops, (2) it is a good flyer and can be relocated via movement of goods and people, (3) climate suitability puts at risk an area ranging from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, and from the Mediterranean to Great Britain and Southern Scandinavia. EFSA and the JRC of the European Commission nominated P. japonica a candidate high priority pest in the EU in the new EU Plant health Law.

IPM-Popillia has the aim to counteract this invasion. The project will provide fast and reliable monitoring tools, including an app-based citizen science approach to rise public awareness. Its main deliverable will be an IPM-Toolbox for control of P. japonica, relying exclusively on environmentally friendly control measures. Several teams of the consortium will collaborate in the core of the recent outbreak area, doing practical research in a European environment that can be applied immediately. The ambition of IPM-Popillia is to show that it is possible to control the new pest and meet the requirements of quarantine regulations, and at the same time respect the environment and the principles of the sustainable use directive.

IPM-Popillia will provide an integrated pest management strategy against P. japonica at a very early timepoint of the invasion process. So far, the new pest is still confined to one single and comparatively small area of about 6’000 square kilometres on mainland Europe. This timeliness is exceptional when compared to previous invasions into Europe, and will significantly enhance chances for successful containment, provided that the starting signal is given now.

Keywords: biological invasion; integrated pest management; plant pests; biological control; epidemic surveillance; monitoring strategy; citizen science

Japanese beetle damage on plum tree
© Giampiero Martinetti

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 861852