Participants, including representatives from national plant protection organisations, researchers from universities and research institutes and plant breeders, shared knowledge on the control of OSR pests and the situations faced in different countries. A key component of the event was an examination of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies for OSR and news from ongoing projects seeking alternative control measures and techniques.

The session dedicated to IPM included, for example, the identification of parasitoids and their potential for biocontrol, the possible role for entomopathogenic nematodes, new approaches for resistance management, and the socio-economics of adopting IPM strategies. In a presentation on IPM strategies for pollen beetle control, Sam Cook, from the UK’s Rothamsted Research, outlined a whole range of possible tools (for example, improved monitoring, trap cropping, mechanical trapping, non-host volatiles as repellents, bio-insecticides etc.) and told the audience that we are ‘almost there’.

Other sessions were dedicated to country presentations on the current situation and recommendations for controlling OSR insect pests, industry presentations on chemical control options and the status of available active substances, control of autumn pests after the loss of neonicotinoid seed treatments, and host plant resistance.

Details of these presentations and the workshop brochure are now available online (see links below).

For more information:

• Read the presentations on the EPPO website here
• Read more about the event on the JKI website here