Fruit fly tests in Greece target invasive species threat
Fruit fly tests in Greece target invasive species threat
Tags: Agriculture, Europe, Fruit fly, Invasive species, Sterile insect technique (SIT)Vassilis Kyriakoulis, Phys.org, 2025.
In a small persimmon orchard in northern Greece, scientists carefully open paper bags to release thousands of flies, in an experiment aimed at blunting the destructive impact of invasive new species. The insects are sterile male Mediterranean fruit flies (Ceratitis capitata), a pest that annually causes significant damage to crops in Naousa, where a large proportion of Greece’s prominent export, the peach, is produced. But the project is ultimately aimed at curbing an even greater threat: fruit fly species from Asia, which have begun to make their appearance in southeastern Europe as climate change increases local temperatures.
The four-year, EU-funded project titled REACT brings together researchers from 12 different countries including the UK, Israel and South Africa. The program has a budget of 6.65 million euros ($7.8 million). “Our approach is to locally eradicate Mediterranean fruit fly populations and then apply this knowledge to other species of interest, such as the oriental fruit fly and the peach fruit fly,” said project participant Nikos Papadopoulos, a professor of Applied Entomology at the University of Thessaly. The male flies are grown at the University of Patras and are fed a bacterial supplement that makes them more active, resilient, and competitive, said George Tsiamis, the university’s Laboratory of Microbiology Systems director, during a media tour organized in Naousa by the research team.
