Towards sustainable management strategies against Nezara viridula

With a growing intensification of agricultural practices as a means to feed the mounting human population, pests have become a serious burden for crop production. Traditional pest control relies heavily on chemical pesticides and their use has increased drastically since the 1960s. Although chemical pesticides were initially very successful in diminishing pest populations, it has become clear that intensive, traditional pesticide use comes with serious economic, social and ecological costs, making it socially and ecologically unsustainable. Therefore, there is an urgent need for efficient and sustainable pest management strategies. Biopesticides and biological control using natural enemies are important alternatives to reduce damage from insect pests.

The overall goal of this PhD research is to develop effective sustainable pest management strategies against a recently emerged pest species, the Southern green stinkbug (also known as Nezara viridula). Nezara viridula is a well-known pest in the Mediterranean areas attacking many crop species. More recently, due to global change, the species has expanded its distribution range, and currently it is becoming a very important pest of greenhouse horticulture in western Europe (e.g. Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the UK) where it causes serious damage to sweet pepper and other crops like eggplant and cucumber. At present, control of N. viridula relies heavily upon chemical insecticides, most of which are disruptive to beneficial insects, constituting an important constraint on integrated pest management (IPM). This highlights the need for more sustainable control methods.