Heat Treatments for Killing Apple Maggot Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) Puparia for Application in Disinfesting Organic Yard Waste.

Organic yard waste from western Washington, U.S. that may contain puparia of apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh) (Diptera: Tephritidae), had been moved to central Washington for composting, threatening the $3 billion apple industry concentrated in that region.

Identification of Novel Pesticides for Use against Glasshouse Invertebrate Pests in UK Tomatoes and Peppers.

To inform current and future pesticide availability to glasshouse vegetable growers, the current project trialled more than twenty products, including existing industry standards, against four key pests of glasshouse tomatoes and bell peppers. These included experimental conventional chemical pesticides as well as alternative biopesticide and biorational products based on phytochemicals, microbials and physically-acting substances. The results suggest that certain biopesticide products, particularly botanicals, provide good levels of pest control, with the same being true of experimental conventional chemical pesticides not yet recommended for use against these pests on these crops.

Development of real-time PCR (TaqMan) assays for the detection and quantification of Botrytis cinerea in planta.

Real-time PCR assays based on TaqMan chemistry have been developed for the detection and quantification of Botrytis cinerea, suitable for a wide range of different host plant species. Assays were designed to the beta-tubulin gene, the intergenic spacer (IGS) region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA and also to a previously published, species-specific sequence characterised amplified region (SCAR) marker; the assays were compared to a published method based on SYBR Green I technology. The assays designed to the IGS region and SCAR marker proved to be highly specific for B.