Dalmatia_Croatia

Abstract

To develop surveillance strategies for expanding populations of Ceratitis capitata to Central and Northern Europe an area in Dalmatia (South Croatia) was selected. During the first two years of the project, the characterization of the pilot sites was conducted.
The pilot area covering inland of Split – Dalmatia and Šibenik – Knin counties was selected based on historical data on medfly presence and historical data on medfly detections in marginal areas. The grid of traps to characterize the spatio-temporal patterns of the Medfly has been established and serviced since May 2020. A uniform grid of 10 X 10 km covering the region guided the deployment. The trapping network has been set up on 25 sites. Data about host type, habitat description, altitude and GPS position is collected for each site. Until the end of monitoring, a total of 25 pairs of traps were deployed to the Croatian pilot. Two trap types were used for medfly population monitoring: Tephri trap with 3 C lure (trimethil ammin, putrescin and ammonium acetate) and Jackson trap baited with trimedlure parapheromone. A trapping network has been set up across the margins of its current distribution where populations expand and contract their range seasonally. Traps were inspected in a weekly intervals and data on medfly males, females and other nontargeted insects were collected. The lures in traps were replaced following manufacturers recommendation. Some of the traps were moved and deployed to other trees, near the initial ones, around halfway through the monitoring period to be placed to appropriate hosts based on seasonality but remained within the same initial grid.