IPM - Invasive Species Mapper

In this app, you can report invasive beetles and fruit flies and help avert the emerging threat to plant health in Europe, addressing the challenge of a new risk to plant health in Europe.

The Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica, was introduced accidentally to mainland Europe in 2014 (EPPO 2014) and can easily spread in the course of trade and the movement of goods and people. P. japonica threatens the entire agricultural sector, urban landscapes, and biodiversity in invaded areas.
Prevention of the species’ invasion faces two constraints: The possibilities to restrict the movement of goods and people are limited, and successful eradication of the population established south of the Italian-Suisse border is impossible. With the IPM (Integrated Pest Management) Citizen Science App, the public can contribute sightings of the Japanese Beetle and participate in location monitoring. The App allows recording of beetle sightings, selection of damaged crops, fruits, vegetables, and other plant species. With your Citizen Science observations for agricultural fields or also in your garden and private horticulture, you help the team of IPM Popillia to combat the invasive species and ensure food safety in agriculture in Europe, the US, and beyond.

Recently, EFSA and the JCR of the European commission have nominated P. japonica as a candidate high priority pest in the new EU Plant health Law. Against this background, it is paramount to develop measures, which help to confine the spread of the new pest and prevent the build-up of high population densities that cause economic loss to agricultural crops and increase migration pressure of the Japanese beetles.

The project IPM-Popillia develops these measures. It involves teams working in the core of the recent outbreak area, conducting fit-for-purpose practical research in a European environment that can be applied immediately, as short-term containment measures. In the longer term, IPM-Popillia provides tools and advice on how to manage the pest on a larger, European continental scale, and on how to be better prepared for similar pest invasions in the future.

REACT is a partner in the project focusing on fruitflies. It aims to develop long-term environmentally friendly response strategies and novel sustainable tools to protect fruit and vegetable production and export capacities from two invasive insect pests of EU priority – Bactrocera dorsalis (Bd) and Bactrocera zonata (Bz). The project will provide enhanced capacity to prevent, identify, monitor, and control these pests. To assess invasion risks, REACT will study the main facilitators and drivers of early invasive processes, the sources and dynamics of adventive populations, and suitable hotspots for species establishment.

The project will also develop a novel field-deployable, rapid, and cost-effective mobile solution for interception. Multiple novel reaction strategy components and tools will be developed and integrated to tackle outbreak events by economically sound programs. The project will also conduct experiments to prove the feasibility of an eradication approach for the first time in Europe. The program and its socio-economic impact will be evaluated with stakeholders and multiple actors. The goal is to create rapid response pest eradication capabilities that are pesticide free and safe for the environment.
The interactive App and the user community run on the SPOTTERON Citizen Science platform on www.spotteron.app.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 861852 and 101059523.