Researchers will fool insects in berry cultivations

The new CORE-organic II project “Softpest multitrap” has started in order to develop knowledge about how the pests Strawberry blossom weevil, Tarnished plant bug and the Raspberry beetle can be controlled in organic cultivation of strawberries and raspberries. The goal is to produce insect traps with scents that can attract and capture the insects. In the project, Professor Anna-Karin Borg-Karlson at the Royal Institute of Technology analyzes scents from flowers and leaves of raspberry and strawberry. Research groups in other countries will study the biology of the pest insects and perform field trials of various kinds of traps.

If the development of effective traps succeed, this will be very important for the organic cultivation of raspberries and strawberries where pest problems are the biggest challenge today. In the conventional berry production traps can replace chemical pesticides.