Alien, invasive pests’ and new emerging ones are threatening the fresh fruit and vegetable production and trading in Europe and elsewhere. Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae, FF), including highly pestiferous and aggressive invasive species, such as the Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata, Cc), the Oriental Fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis, Bd) and the peach fruit fly (Bactrocera zonata, Bz). Cc are currently expanding their geographic distribution from the coastal warmer areas of the Mediterranean parts of Europe to northern and more continental areas thus posing an additional havoc to deciduous fruit production in these areas. On the other hand, Bd and Bz are frequently intercepted in European ports of entry and have been detected in a few European countries. The recent outbreak of B. dosalis in the area of Campania, Italy and the additional detections in other parts of the country together with further detection in Austria, France and Belgium strongly support the timely operation and execution of the FF-IPM project. Becoming established, both Bd and Bz, are expected to cause major economic damage to European fruit and vegetable growers and to the trading sector. The risks of arrival, establishment and range expansion of the above invasive FF are expected to escalate because of global climate change, increased trading, and human mobility. The ban of neonicotinoids, which is one of the main control tools against FF in Europe, poses an additional burden on fruit growers in Europe. FF-IPM aimed to “develop holistic knowledge-based approaches, innovative tools and services, to empower stakeholders across all sectors along the fruit production and processing chain to (a) dynamically address the impending risks of FF invasion, and (b) efficiently apply FF management throughout a spatial and seasonal continuum in a comprehensive, multi-actor and locally-adapted manner”. All objectives of the project were fully achieved and there is a list of tools and strategies developed that can be used to address the ongoing invasion of B. dorsalis in Europe and the range expansion of Ceratitis capitata in norther European countries. In addition, they support EU operation to prohibit invasion of B. zonata.
