The Sterile Insect Technique as a Component of Sustainable Area-wide Integrated Pest Management of Selected Horticultural Insect Pests

The indiscriminate use of broad-spectrum insecticides has caused major problems with pest resistance, residues in food, environmental contamination, outbreaks of secondary pests, and reductions in populations of beneficial insects. This results in increased demands for pest control methods that are both efficient and friendly to the environment. The sterile insect technique (SIT), applied as part of an area-wide integrated pest management approach (AW-IPM), offers considerable potential and has been used with great success against major pests of agricultural importance to establish pest-free areas (eradication), areas of low pest prevalence (suppression) or to maintain areas free of the pest through containment or prevention. This review describes recent advances in the SIT, with practical examples of how SIT programs have been designed and carried out to control different insect pests of agricultural importance, especially the Mediterranean fruit fly, the codling moth, the date moth, and the cactus moth. Topics discussed include:  technological breakthroughs in production and delivery systems;  recent advances in insect genetics;  the development of genetic sexing strains;  cost-effectiveness;  the role private companies can play; and  the potential long-term direct and indirect economic benefits associated with the successful implementation of AW-IPM programs with an SIT component. In view of the increasing demand of environmental-friendly control tactics, it is anticipated that the SIT, as part of area-wide pest management approaches, will increasingly gain in importance in the years/decades to come. M.J.B. Vreysen et al. J. Fruit Ornam. Plant Res. vol. 14 (Suppl. 3), 2006: 107-131 108