Growers’ Help Wanted on Spotted Wing Drosophila Survey
February 28, 2017 Leaders of a nationwide project, Sustainable Spotted Wing Drosophila Management for U.S. Fruit Crops, are asking growers to complete an online survey about the pest.
An important part of the project, which was funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA Specialty Crops Research Initiative, is measuring the impact SWD has had on affected crops, said Hannah Burrack, Associate Professor of Entomology and Extension Specialist at North Carolina State University.
Hearing from growers about SWD’s impacts will enable researchers to focus their efforts on the areas of greatest need, provide support for additional resources to manage SWD – such as new insecticides or biological controls – and help the scientists evaluate their activities.
“In order to do this, we are collecting information from farmers who grow SWD host crops via an online survey,” Burrack said.
Growers can access the survey here, and a Spanish version is available here. The survey takes 25 to 30 minutes and will ask about your production practices before and after SWD was detected on your farm. You also can print a paper copy at the survey link, fill it out, and mail it in.
Participation the survey is voluntary, and the survey does not collect personally identifying information. Summaries of aggregated survey data will be available here on the project website, and also will be available by request.
If you have questions about the survey, please contact Burrack at [email protected], or Jean-Jacques Dubois, Research Coordinator at Southern IPM Center, at [email protected].
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