The task

Developing mass rearing techniques and release methods for biocontrol agents for fruitspotting bugs began as part a Voluntary Contributor project with HAL and was then merged the larger Multi-Industry Project.

Over the last few years we have developed a mass rearing system for Anastatus wasps, an egg parasitoid of FSB and are now have material available for sale.

Unfortuneately, controlling FSB and assessing biocontrol agents was never going to be easy. FSB typically move into crops from breeding areas nearby.

This means that control is not a staightforward process and may work better and faster on some farms than others, depending on the farm layout and features of the local environment.