Sustainable Management of Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii): Ecology and Innovative Control Strategies

The invasive spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae), is a major agricultural pest threatening soft fruit production worldwide. Over the past two decades, its rapid global spread has emerged as a critical threat to sustainable fruit cultivation across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Unlike typical drosophilids that infest damaged or overripe fruits, D. suzukii is unique in attacking healthy ripening fruits, leading to significant yield losses and severe economic burdens for berry, cherry, and stone fruit growers. Current reliance on synthetic insecticides, while temporarily effective, cause increasing environmental, ecological, and socio-economic concerns, including pesticide resistance, residue contamination, and detrimental impacts on non-target biodiversity. Critical knowledge gaps remain regarding this pest’s overwintering biology, landscape-scale dispersal, host adaptation in newly invaded regions, and the risk of resistance development under prolonged insecticide use. Addressing these gaps is essential for developing resilient, sustainable, and fruit-crop-specific management strategies.

This Research Topic focuses specifically on translating ecological and molecular knowledge of D. suzukii into operational field-ready tools for soft fruit production systems. In this context, rather than broad pest management principles, the Research Topic targets the unique biological traits, invasion dynamics, and production contexts that make D. suzukii challenging to manage: its ability to infest intact fruit at commercial scale, its rapid range expansion into new climatic zones, and the urgent need for species-specific alternatives to calendar-based insecticide programs. By fostering dialogue between entomologists, horticulturalists, molecular biologists, and decision-support specialists, this Research Topic aims to accelerate the development of D. suzukii-specific, low-residue management strategies validated under real farming conditions.

To gather further insights into the sustainable, species-specific management of Drosophila suzukii in soft fruit agroecosystems, we welcome Original Research and Review articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Overwintering biology, seasonal phenology, and landscape-scale dispersal of D. suzukii in invaded soft fruit agroecosystems, and their implications for IPM timing;
• Climate-driven shifts in D. suzukii invasion range, voltinism, and host-use patterns across European, African, and Asian soft fruit systems;
• Establishment, host specificity, and field efficacy of D. suzukii-targeted biocontrol agents, including Ganaspis brasiliensis and Leptopilina japonica, in commercial fruit production settings;
• Soft fruit-specific IPM programmes for D. suzukii: spray timing decision tools, resistance management, and economic threshold-based interventions for berry and stone fruit growers;
• D. suzukii volatile ecology and the development of species-specific lure and mating disruption systems for monitoring and population suppression in orchards and berry farms;
• Population forecasting models integrating D. suzukii phenology with fruit ripening calendars and climate projections for grower-facing decision support;
• Species-specific molecular targets and population genomics of D. suzukii: RNAi and sterile insect approaches validated under field-realistic orchard conditions;
• AI-assisted trap monitoring, image-based infestation detection, and real-time decision-support tools for D. suzukii management in commercial soft fruit systems.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Biological control, Integrated pest management (IPM), Semiochemicals, Niche modelling, Nature-based solutions

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.