Autumn survey of wheat bulb fly incidence

This project will support the long-term monitoring of WBF through the traditional autumn survey. The survey involves taking soil samples in September from 30 fields prone to WBF attack (split equally across sites located in the East and North of England) and calculating the number of WBF eggs per square metre. An early indication of risk, based on a subset of sites, is published in September. The final indication of risk, based on all sites, is published in October. The work will also investigate the potential to predict WBF risk using a meteorological model. A molecular method to detect WBF DNA in soil samples will also be validated as part of the project.