Category: US Agriculture

Source: US Agriculture Research Service

An Indoor Air Scrubber for Removing Ammonia in Poultry Houses

By: Jessica Ryan
Email: arspress@usda.gov

Researchers from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are helping poultry farmers protect their flocks and their employees, while improving poultry production. ARS researchers recently developed an indoor air scrubber that purifies the air in chicken houses and reduces ammonia levels by 87% to 99%. 

High levels of ammonia pose problems for poultry and agricultural workers. Ammonia, which is released from litter in poultry houses, reduces birds’ body weight gain, causes poor feed conversion, and makes birds more susceptible to viral diseases. In addition, ammonia exposure can pose health risks to agricultural workers. 

Poultry manure accounts for 27% of atmospheric ammonia emissions in the United States, representing a significant loss of nitrogen that could otherwise be used as fertilizer for crop production. 

ARS Research Soil Scientist Philip Moore poses next to the indoor air scrubber. (Photo by Jerry Martin, ARS)

Currently, farmers use poultry litter acidifying amendments such as adding aluminum sulfate, known as alum, to litter to reduce ammonia levels in poultry houses. However, the amendments only last up to three to four weeks. Ammonia scrubbers offer an alternative solution; however, current systems only treat exhaust air. As a result, they provide no direct benefits to poultry production and are not cost-effective. 

To find a more economical solution for farmers, researchers from the ARS Poultry Production and Product Safety Research Unit in Fayetteville, AR, designed and patented a full-scale prototype of an indoor air scrubber that can be easily installed in a poultry house to purify the air and save valuable nitrogen. The scrubber has a fast sand filter that removes particulate matter from the scrubbing solution to prevent the nozzles from clogging – a problem that existing air scrubbers have in animal facilities with heavy dust. 

“In study trials at our testing facility, our scrubber purified the amount of air in a 40 foot by 400-foot chicken house every 30 minutes and reduced ammonia levels by 87% to 99%, depending on the ammonia concentration and the air flow rate at which it is operated,” said ARS Research Soil Scientist Philip Moore. 

The indoor air scrubber. (Photo by Philip Moore, ARS)

Moore and his research partners are planning to test the air scrubber in commercial poultry houses in the near future. 

In addition to measuring ammonia levels, the researchers will look at how effectively the air scrubber can remove dust and pathogens from the air, such as viruses responsible for avian influenza and other pathogens that cause foodborne illnesses.

“This innovative technology could transform livestock production in poultry and potentially swine housing operations by improving animal welfare and worker safety, reducing disease transmission risks, and increasing farm profitability and environmental sustainability,” said Moore. 

The study was published in the Journal of Applied Poultry Research and done in collaboration with the ARS Poultry Research Unit at Mississippi State University, MS, and the University of Delaware’s Department of Animal and Food Sciences.

The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

Source: US Agriculture Research Service

Finding More Effective Treatments in the Fight Against Varroa Mites

By: Jessica Ryan
Email: arspress@usda.gov

Researchers from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are helping bee keepers protect their colonies by studying the effectiveness of combining a widely used mite-killing pesticide with an agent that inhibits the ability of the destructive Varroa mite to tolerate the pesticide. 

Honey bees play a crucial role in U.S. agriculture, with the value of crops that require pollination estimated at more than $20 billion annually in the U.S. Varroa mites, also known as Varroa destructor, are a force to be reckoned with in the honey bee world. The dangerous and parasitic mite of bee colonies causes bodily harm and spreads deadly viruses that have led to major colony losses across the country. 

A preferred method to control Varroa mite populations is amitraz, a pesticide that is highly toxic to Varroa mites but safe for honey bees, when used as instructed. However, a recent ARS study found that Varroa mites are becoming increasingly resistant to amitraz due to a genetic mutation. Thus, bee keepers are now seeking more effective methods for controlling Varroa mite populations.

 
Adult honey bee with a Varroa mite on its back. (Photo by Stephen Ausmus, ARS)

In a new study, ARS and University of California, Davis (UC Davis) researchers explored a new way to increase the efficacy of amitraz, even in amitraz-resistant mites. The researchers conducted a proof-of-concept study in a laboratory setting by combining amitraz with a compound used in research to understand how certain pesticides are tolerated in organisms, like the Varroa mite. 

“This compound ihibits a naturally occurring process that prevents certain chemicals, like pesticides, from accumulating inside cells,” said Julia Fine, a Research Entomologist at the Pollinator Health Research Laboratory in Davis, CA.  “If a chemical toxicant can’t reach a high enough concentration in a cell, it won’t have a toxic effect in the organism. Previously, we didn’t know if this process was part of how Varroa tolerate amitraz exposure.” 

A magnified image of live varroa mites on a honey bee pupa host. (Image by Julia Fine, ARS)

Through a collaboration with UC Davis, Fine found that using the inhibiting compound in combination with amitraz increases amitraz toxicity and was even effective against amitraz-resistant mites. These findings open a promising new line of research that may lead to the development of novel synergists that can be used to control Varroa mites in combination with amitraz or other miticides. Increasing the efficacy of amitraz treatments, especially the initial application, may help bee keepers save time and money. 

“Better amitraz formulations can decrease the need for additional treatments, lower the selection pressure on the mite population, and decrease the economic burden on bee keepers as they protect their colonies,” said Fine. 

Fine noted that the inhibitor used in the research is not specific to Varroa. It can also negatively affect the ability of honey bees to tolerate pesticide exposures. 

“Now that we know this process is important to amitraz tolerance in Varroa, the next step is to develop synergists that specifically inhibit this process in Varroa without affecting honey bees.” 

The research was conducted in collaboration with the ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, MD, and ARS Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics, and Physiology Research Laboratory in Baton Rouge, LA. This research was supported by a Honey Bee Health Grant through the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) and the Pollinator Partnership (P2) to Professor Sascha Nicklisch of UC Davis.

The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

Source: US Agriculture Research Service

ARS Scientists Develop Innovative Pipeline to Analyze Plant Pathogens

By: Tami Terella-Faram
Email: arspress@usda.gov

ARS scientists in Corvallis, OR, in collaboration with Oregon State University, developed a disease surveillance platform that could improve U.S. agriculture by unlocking the future of plant health. PathogenSurveillance is an innovative, open-source software tool that can quickly analyze and identify novel microbial variants based on DNA sequences.

The automated PathogenSurveillance pipeline is an innovative workflow tool to help scientists respond in real-time to emerging, or re-emerging, invasive pathogens and pests. The surveillance platform will improve plant health and aid in reducing the spread of new and emerging diseases in agronomic, urban, and forest ecosystems.

“This genomics pipeline revolutionizes plant health, allowing us to identify any microbe, pest, or pathogen in just minutes-to-hours once there is a genome sequence,” said Nik Grunwald, ARS research plant pathologist at the Horticultural Crops Disease and Pest Management Research Unit in Corvallis. “The genomic pipeline can be used for real-time biosurveillance of known, or unknown, pathogens relatively quickly, which lessens the barrier to adoption and use of PathogenSurveillance drastically.”

A Camellia plant infected with Phytophthora nemorosa, which causes leaf blight. (Photo by Nik Grunwald, ARS plant pathologist).

Grunwald added that, since everything is sequence-based, this tool can be used to monitor the evolution of pest/pathogens in real-time, providing insights into how populations change, variations emerge, and new invasions occur. The platform can also be easily deployed to identify a specific pathogen, or to monitor the emergence of new disease strains or variants.

“Samples are sent to a local lab, and the resulting genome is sequenced and uploaded to the pipeline software system for identification,” Grunwald said. “Variation in genomes can thus be monitored over time and space by comparing genomes.”

This allows PathogenSurveillance to be used by labs or clinics with little computational experience, and it provides “unprecedented capability for in-field or point-of-care diagnosis of pests and pathogens,” according to Grunwald.

The PathogenSurveillance platform also enables scientists to input one to several hundred population samples of small-to-modest genome sizes, including bacteria, fungi, insects, and nematodes for pathogen surveillance and identification.

The program output is also intuitive for the user because it can provide graphs of genetic diversity and create reports in the form of an interactive HTML document.

“This will be a benefit to researchers, disease clinics, and diagnosticians in their work to identify clonal, or other types of variants such as the UG99 stem rust, or NA2 of sudden oak death,” added Grunwald.

Scientists can download the PathogenSurveillance software tool at:  https://nf-co.re/pathogensurveillance/1.0.0/.

Source: US Agriculture Research Service

Hemp Roots Offer New Opportunities for Farmers and Cancer Research

By: Maribel Alonso
Email: arspress@usda.gov

In a groundbreaking study, scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) redefined the value of roots in industrial hemp, providing new opportunities for industrial hemp growers and opening new avenues for pediatric cancer research.

While the above ground part of Cannabis sativa L. plants, or industrial hemp, is widely recognized for its broad range of uses, including fiber production and grain (as a source of protein and oil), its roots have often been unutilized. This is because, until now, they were not considered to hold significant value.

Dr. Korey Brownstein, a research chemist with the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, IL, noticed a strange substance showing up in his analysis as he was studying the chemical composition of hemp roots. Intrigued by these findings, Brownstein led a team of researchers to further investigate and analyze this chemical substance to determine its precise structure.

Hemp root. Image Provided by USDA PGRU Hemp Germplasm Lab – Tyler Gordon Dan Meyers and Zach Stansell

The analysis showed the substance was multiple compounds (four in total) that researchers predicted through structural modeling to be neolignans – natural products with similar structures formed during the plant’s biological processes. Although molecules with similar properties have also been found in other plants, such as paper mulberries and a tree native to Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, this is the first time such molecules have been isolated from hemp roots.

The research team spent three years isolating and purifying these compounds—a process they described as ‘complex and increasingly difficult.’  Due to potential activities of the molecules, the researchers were determined to understand their nature and uncover the complete narrative behind them.

The team also collaborated with scientists at the Pediatric Oncology Laboratory at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria, where a team of researchers found that these molecules showed moderate activity in killing pediatric cancer cells (cytotoxic effect) in the laboratory setting. Refining and understanding the effect of this molecule on pediatric cancers will open new alternatives for children’s cancers that are unresponsive to current therapies.

Hemp root. Image Provided by USDA PGRU Hemp Germplasm Lab – Tyler Gordon Dan Meyers and Zach Stansell

“We believe this new discovery offers industrial hemp growers a potential new revenue stream from a part of the plant that was previously overlooked,” said Brownstein. “Unlike crops such as corn or soybeans, which have multiple uses, hemp has been limited in scope. But if we treat hemp as a multi-use crop, we can expand its applications and market—paper, grain, fiber, and now, potentially, pharmaceutical compounds from the roots. The discovery of these compounds adds value to this commodity.”

The findings, published in a peer-reviewed journal, marks the first time these specific neolignans have been isolated from hemp and linked to possessing cytotoxic effects on pediatric cancer cell lines.

The team’s next steps include scaling up compound extraction for larger, more controlled functional studies. They aim to explore a broad array of cancer cell lines to assess the therapeutic potential of these neolignans in greater depth.

“This is about opening new doors,” Brownstein emphasized. “We’re expanding the possibilities for using the whole industrial hemp plant. By adding value to the roots, we’re giving farmers more stability and more reasons to invest in this emerging crop.”

The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

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Source: US Agriculture Research Service

A New Spring Wheat Germplasm Promises to Reduce Economic Losses Caused by Fusarium

By: Maribel Alonso
Email: Maribel.Alonso@usda.gov

Researchers at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are helping American wheat farmers fight a devastating crop disease.

Researchers released a new spring wheat germplasm line with resistance to Fusarium head blight. This challenging fungal disease leads to significant annual economic losses in cereal crop production, estimated at $2.7B over the period from 1998 to 2000, and poses health risks to consumers.

Fusarium head blight (FHB), or scab, is the number one fungal disease impacting small-grain cereal production in the U.S., particularly wheat and barley. The primary cause of the disease is the fungus Fusarium graminearum L., although it can also be triggered by multiple strains or species of Fusarium.  

FHB pathogens produce a toxin that contaminates the grain and flour, leading to production losses as it poses health risks for humans and animals. Over the years, it has become clear to farmers, researchers, and breeders that the most effective way to control this disastrous disease is by enhancing cereal crops with genes that show resistance to FHB. However, the source of effective resistance to FHB is currently limited in wheat and barley. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find new resistance genes that could be used to fight the disease, especially in durum wheat and barley.  

In a scientific breakthrough led by ARS Research Geneticist Xiwen Cai with the Wheat, Sorghum, and Forage Research Unit in Lincoln, NE, scientists at ARS and the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station leveraged insights from previously published studies to develop a new spring wheat germplasm line named ‘WGC002.’ This germplasm carries a novel gene [Fhb7^The2] found in wild grass that provides significant resistance to Fusarium under diverse environments. The scientists used plant breeding techniques to select genes with the desired traits from wild grass in their breeding lines, which have now been successfully integrated into different market classes of U.S. wheat.   

Plant image of the spring wheat with FHB resistance gene Fhb7 (left) and its chromosome image (right). The terminal green segments on two chromosomes contain Fhb7. Photos provided by Xiwen Cai. 

“This is a significant discovery because there are very few resistance genes currently available. This marks the first effective FHB resistance gene identified in wild species that has been bred into spring, winter, and durum wheat,” said Cai. “Moreover, this gene exhibits what we refer to as an additive effect, meaning it enhances and strengthens the resistance level of another gene.”

WGC002 Spring Wheat Germplasm has already been utilized by many wheat breeding programs locally and around the world. ARS scientists in Lincoln, NE, have now been deploying this novel FHB resistance gene in elite varieties of winter, spring, and durum wheat.

Scientists anticipate a substantial reduction in U.S. economic losses from wheat crops affected by FHB within just a few years if farmers begin growing new varieties with this resistance gene.

WGC002 was developed with financial support from the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the US Wheat & Barley Scab Initiative, and USDA-ARS CRIS Project.

This research was part of a series of collaborative studies conducted by ARS scientists and partners to identify FHB resistant genes in wheat and wild relatives. Multiple genes have been found to be resistant to FHB, but only two of them [Fhb1 and Fhb7] have been used and characterized as effective sources of resistance in breeding for wheat variety development. Selecting multiple genes simultaneously to provide robust and durable resistance is a common and effective practice in this effort.

The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in U.S. agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

Source: US Agriculture Research Service

A Tomato Line That’s Ripe for the Picking

By: Jessica Ryan
Email: arspress@usda.gov

Researchers from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and their university partners are helping U.S. tomato growers fight a devastating crop disease. Researchers found that a tomato line developed 30 years ago is showing good resistance to the emerging tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), a virus that has the potential to cause billions of dollars in damage to the tomato industry in the United States and worldwide. 

ToBRFV infects tomato, pepper, and similar crops by distorting leaves and discoloring fruit, resulting in yield loss. The virus is seed-borne and overcomes the resistance genes in current commercial cultivars. It can easily spread when healthy plants come in contact with contaminated equipment, hands, clothing, or infected plants or plant parts. The most effective way for farmers and growers to manage the virus is through prevention of contact with the virus, including cleaning, sanitizing, disinfecting, and maintaining clean growing areas.  

Tomato infected by tomato brown rugose fruit virus with brown rugose on fruits (top) and mottle mosaic on leaves (bottom). (Photo by Kai Ling, ARS)

“To minimize the impact of ToBRFV, it is crucial to identify new sources of genetic resistance that can be used to breed virus-resistant tomato cultivars,” said Kai Ling, an ARS research plant pathologist at the U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, SC. “While prevention is important, deploying cultivars with resistance genes is the criticalstrategy to combat tobamoviruses.”

 According to a recent study published in Plant Biotechnology Journal, Ling and his research team found that a tomato line (tomato^NN) expressing the tobacco N gene that was developed in the 1990s shows resistance to ToBRFV. The tomato^NN line was created by ARS plant molecular geneticist Barbara Baker and her colleagues at the Plant Gene Expression Center in Albany, CA. 

She and her team isolated the N gene from a wild tobacco relative that confers resistance to the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and developed the TMV-resistant tomato^NN line. 

Ling and his colleagues discovered that the tomato^NN line is resistant to ToBRFV at 22°C (71.6°F), but the resistance decreases at higher temperatures, such as 30°C (86°F), which is characteristic of several resistance genes, including N-mediated TMV resistance.     

“As we look at the possible virus-resistant tomato cultivars, it is important to understand the role that temperature plays in production,” said Ling. “Temperature is a significant environmental cue that greatly influences host-pathogen interactions. Further study is needed to identify the role of temperature in the genetice resitance to tomato^NN.” 

The study’s findings bring researchers one step closer to controlling ToBRFV. 

“The results described in this paper highlight the significant potential of using the tomato^NN line to breed tomato cultivars resistant to ToBRFV and offers a new approach to managing this important disease for a beloved food staple,” said Ling. 

The research was done in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Davis; and Iowa State University. 

The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

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Source: US Agriculture Research Service

Hawai’i-grown Lemons and Limes Ready for Export

By: Jessica Ryan
Email: arspress@usda.gov

Researchers from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service are opening new markets for America’s fruit growers. Fruit flies are major economic and quarantine pests that impact fresh fruit production and impede international trade. Flies lay their eggs on fruits, making the infested fruit their host, resulting in millions of dollars in damage annually. For international trade, fruits must undergo quarantine treatment or other mitigation measures to control possible infestation by fruit flies and other high-risk pests. 

In Hawai’i, ‘Lisbon’ lemons and ‘Persian’ or ‘Tahiti’ limes, both commercially popular cultivars, are new crops recently planted on the rich-soil island of Maui. Currently, the fruit is being sold locally, but harvest volumes may eventually surpass local demand. Export from Hawai’i is an option to best utilize production of high quality lemons and limes. 

Persian Limes. (Photo by Peter Follett, ARS)

ARS researchers evaluated whether the Hawai’i-grown lemons and limes can serve as hosts for Mediterranean fruit flies, Oriental fruit flies, and melon flies. In the studies, host status testing was conducted using no-choice laboratory and field cage tests as well as field collection of fruits. Their research findings show promise in the safe overseas export of commercial quality and non-damaged Lisbon lemons and Persian limes. 

“We inspected the fruits and found that the non-damaged fruits are natural non-hosts of fruit flies and pose a low risk of moving fruit flies during overseas export,” said Peter Follett, a research entomologist at the Daniel K. Inouye U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo, HI. 

Follett added that Hawaii may be able to develop an export protocol based on non-host status or a systems approach to reduce the pest risk to an acceptable level for trading partners. 

As beloved citrus fruits with several nutritional benefits, lemons and limes are in demand worldwide. These research findings should make it easier and more economically beneficial for growers to export these fruits to a multitude of markets.   

The studies were conducted in collaboration with the ARS Southeastern Fruit and Nut Research Laboratory in Byron, GA, and the ARS  San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center in Parlier, CA. 

The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

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Source: US Agriculture Research Service

Source: US Agriculture Research Service

USDA Agricultural Research Service Scientists Awarded Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals for Innovative Solutions to Agricultural Challenges

By: Autumn Canaday
Email: arspress@usda.gov

WASHINGTON, August 12, 2025 – Four employees with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have been honored with Service to America medals for their groundbreaking research and dedication to solving agricultural challenges that affect the nation every day, from field to table. 

Since 2001, the Partnership for Public Service has celebrated nearly 800 public servants through the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, also known as the Sammies. This premier awards program for career federal employees is considered the Oscars of public service and shines the spotlight on remarkable accomplishments that benefit the nation and improve the daily lives of all Americans. 

The USDA ARS 2025 Sammies honorees and a summary of their accomplishments are below: 

• Research Soil Scientist Yakov Pachepsky, Ph.D., and Research Leader Moon S. Kim, Ph.D., (Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Md.) were honored for their foodborne illness prevention research, which is achieved by drones, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to solve contamination challenges in water, soil, and at processing facilities across the nation. Their research team’s efforts leveraged engineering and environmental science to create solutions for agriculture, including the closely monitored Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, by developing detection technologies that can identify contamination in chicken coops and free-range poultry areas. 

Research Soil Scientist Yakov Pachepsky, Ph.D., and Research Leader Moon S. Kim, Ph.D.

• Research Physical Scientist Kyle Knipper, Ph.D., (Sustainable Agricultural Water Systems Unit in Davis, Ca.) was honored for developing satellite-based models that measure the evaporation of water from soil and plant surfaces and transforming traditional irrigation practices so farmers have better irrigation scheduling and crop health. His research is specifically far-reaching due to two projects (GRAPEX and T-REX) that use remote sensing of evapotranspiration to preserve groundwater for grapes and tree crops, respectively. This breakthrough research was able to reduce water usage by up to 25% in some vineyards. 

Research Physical Scientist Kyle Knipper, Ph.D. 

• Distinguished Senior Research Scientist Johnie N. Jenkins, Ph.D., (Crop Science Research Laboratory at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Miss.) was honored for his innovative research to eradicate the boll weevil in cotton plants and leading a field team to introduce a pest-resistant cotton variety that is now considered the industry standard. His research has also resulted in higher cotton yields and reduced costs for applying insecticides. 

Distinguished Senior Research Scientist Johnie N. Jenkins, Ph.D. 

Visit the 2025 Service to America Medals website to learn more and celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of these career federal employees. 

The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in U.S. agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

 

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Source: US Agriculture Research Service

Harmonic Radar on Tiny Travelers Means Smarter Crop Protection

By: Todd Silver
Email: Todd.Silver@usda.gov

With their insatiable hunger for succulent fruits and vegetables, fruit flies from the Tephritidae family are the bane of farmers and consumers alike. But recent ARS findings suggest that wind could play a major factor in surveillance, containment, and eradication of this destructive pest. Advanced technology in tracking the effects of wind dispersal on tiny, winged creatures in the wild promises to refine fruit fly management strategies, identify outbreak sources, and help scientists anticipate their movement, feeding, and mating patterns.

Several fruit flies from the Tephritidae fruit fly family are invasive to the U.S. and combine to cause millions, and during some seasons billions, in crop losses to American farmers. Beyond direct damage and control costs, if these pests were to become established on the U.S. mainland, they would become major barriers to international trade and prevent U.S. farmers from exporting to many of our trading partners. 

Tephritid fruit fly with harmonic radar tag attached, marked with yellow fingernail polish.

The key to managing these pests is to understand their flying behaviors. Matthew Siderhurst recognized and addressed the complexity of tracing flies and deciphering wind-based patterns and now leads a team of scientists at the Daniel K. Inouye U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo, HI, where their research will empower American farmers to protect their crops and reduce food waste. Groundbreaking research published in Environmental Entomology explains that harmonic radar tagging, initially developed for locating avalanche victims, can be used to study these fly pests. The method uses reflector tags that require no energy source of their own to bounce a signal back to a transceiver to map movement data.  

Though attaching harmonic radar tags to the fruit flies requires painstaking precision, the mechanism is relatively simplistic: a superelastic 4-centimeter wire is connected to a diode, or one-way current semi-conductor, with an ultraviolet-activated adhesive. Next, electrical connections between the wires and diode contacts are secured with conductive silver paint. Check out the radar tags in this video. 

Siderhurst said the study’s identification of outbreak patterns could predict environmental fluctuations influencing fruit fly behavior and enable farmers to adapt pest control methods. Contrary to historic consensus, this ARS-led research documented that fruit flies control their flight paths in response to wind cues as opposed to passive wind-driven movement. 

“Most of us have seen a housefly buzz around a room and that movement appears random, but when we look at fruit flies, we see they show a fairly high degree of directional persistence,” Siderhurst said. “That is, they move in much straighter lines than expected, and individual flies appear to hold to a general heading when moving between trees.” 

Tephritid fruit flies are about the size of a housefly and damage a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

Further field testing with wild flies is warranted because the wind influenced the flies’ flight directionality, especially in movements between trees using lab-reared flies to avoid underestimating the flies’ natural movement abilities and overstate wind’s role in their flight. 

Siderhurst acknowledged that most of the research thus far has proven the technique’s effectiveness, but work remains to answer further biological questions with the new tool. Further research, he said, will ideally reveal how habitat, vegetation density, and factors such as age, diet, and time of day affect insect flight patterns, with consideration of environmental influences like wind and open landscapes. 

“Our approach is accessible and cost-effective,” Siderhurst said. “While you need good eyes and a steady hand, this technique is cost-effective and transceivers are available off the shelf, so there’s no need to build anything.” 

For more information, visit the Daniel K. Inouye U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center.

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The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in U.S. agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.