Managing the invasive threat to Europe’s forests
Over the last few decades, European trees and forests have experienced dramatic losses caused by introduced non-native invasive pests and pathogens. As part of an international project, CABI is developing cost-effective and environmentally friendly tools for the prevention, detection and control of the invasive threats to Europes forests.
Biological control of lesser calamint
Lesser calamint is an aromatic perennial herb that has been introduced to New Zealand from Europe. Currently present on the east coast of the North Island, lesser calamint is considered an emerging weed; it is affecting desirable pasture species and having negative economic impacts. CABI is conducting field surveys and searching for natural enemies from lesser calamints area of origin in Europe that could be introduced in New Zealand as biological control agents.
Biological control of the Spotted wing Drosophila – Drosophila suzukii
Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae), a fruit fly from East Asia, is now a serious economic pest of soft fruits and berries across Europe, the Americas and North Africa. In this project we are focusing on finding natural enemies (parasitoids) of the pest to introduce into Europe. This involves surveys for parasitoids where it originated and experiments in quarantine in Switzerland to investigate their taxonomy, performance and specificity.
Integrated weed management in Europe
Weeds are ubiquitous and cause substantial yield losses across all arable and horticultural land. The goal of this European-wide project is to optimise the efficacy, applicability and use of environmentally friendly weed control measures that can replace or complement current chemical control methods.