Lara Maistrello

Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia | UNIMO · Department of Life Sciences

The European Commission requested the EFSA Panel on Plant Health to prepare and deliver risk assessments for commodities listed in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2019 as ‘High‐risk plants, plant products and other objects’. This Scientific Opinion covers plant health risks posed by plants of hybrids of Prunus cerasus x Prunus canescen...

The European Commission requested the EFSA Panel on Plant Health to evaluate the probability of entry of pests (likelihood of pest freedom at entry), including both regulated and non‐regulated pests, associated with unrooted cuttings of the genera Petunia and Calibrachoa produced under physical isolation in Costa Rica. The relevance of any pest for...

First discovered in Switzerland in 2004, the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) Halyomorpha halys (Stål) is now present in 80% of European countries. A few years after its introduction, BMSB has caused severe losses, particularly in fruit and hazelnut orchards in southern and eastern Europe, and is currently a serious threat to agricultural producti...

The European Commission requested the EFSA Panel on Plant Health to prepare and deliver risk assessments for commodities listed in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2019 as ‘High risk plants, plant products and other objects’. This Scientific Opinion covers plant health risks posed by plants of Betula pendula and B. pubescens imported fr...

The invasive insect brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is an emerging pest of global importance, as it is destroying fruits and seeds, having caused estimated damages of € 588 million to crops in 2019 in Northern Italy alone. An open challenge is to improve monitoring of BMSB in order to be able to deploy countermeasures more efficiently and to incr...

The house fly, Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae), is a significant pest in livestock farms and a major concern for both humans and farmed animals due to its ability to transmit over 200 pathogens. The use of pupal parasitoids is a sustainable strategy for controlling this pest. Spalangia cameroni Perkins (Hymenoptera: Spalangiidae) and Muscidi...

In this article, we introduce machine learning (ML) techniques developed for the monitoring of the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), a significant agricultural pest responsible for considerable crop damage worldwide. The Haly.ID project, initiated in early 2021, aims to enhance BMSB monitoring through the utilization of information and communica...

BACKGROUND Halyomorpha halys is one of the most damaging invasive agricultural pests in North America and southern Europe. It is commonly monitored using pheromone traps, which are not very effective because few bugs are caught and some escape and/or remain outside the trap on surrounding plants where they feed, increasing the damage. Other monitor...

The house fly, Musca domestica L., is a significant human and livestock pest. Experiments used female adult house flies glued onto toothpicks for controlled exposure of their tarsi alone (tarsal assay) or their tarsi and proboscis (proboscis assay) with a sucrose solution containing imidacloprid at either a low (10 µg/mL) or high (4000 µg/mL) conce...

This paper proposes an extended parametrization for a simple model for the development of the invasive brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys Stål, 1855) proposed by the same authors in a previous conference. The quadratic equations for the duration of each instar under variable temperatures were obtained by regressions of datasets from a co...

I risultati della bugs farm installata presso l’impianto di biogas evidenziano i vantaggi offerti dalle farine proteiche da insetti per la filiera mangimistica, sia per la transizione verso sistemi di produzione alimentari resilienti e sostenibili, sia come nuova opportunità per la multifunzionalità delle aziende agricole.

The brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys is an Asian species that has become a major agricultural pest in North America and Europe. Ants from the genus Crematogaster are predators of H. halys nymphs in Asia, as well as in the Mediterranean, where known native predators are still few. At the same time, ants usually do not harm H. halys eggs,...

FoodHub Esplorando l'Economia Circolare dei Food Systems https://www.food-hub.it/media/magazine/

In this paper, we illustrate the technological innovations we implemented in a test-bed field to automate the bug scouting process. Our work is motivated by the invasive global pest Halyomorpha halys (HH), whose damages have a huge economic impact for fruit orchards. We propose the automation of the time-and labor-intensive process of the HH scouti...

Black soldier fly larvae are considered an alternative source of protein due to their high protein content and low environmental impact of farming. The effect of incorporation of black soldier fly larvae protein (87.6 ± 2.4 g/100 g content) on meat analogues textural characteristics was determined and compared with those of meat analogues prepared...

The SCALIBUR project (Horizon, 2020) aimed to explore innovative solutions, including the use of black soldier fly larvae, for the bio-urban waste management. This research work describes the evaluation of the variability in water, proteins, fat, ashes, and carbohydrates present in the HO.RE.CA. food leftovers which were withdrawn from a local can...

The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), Halyomorpha halys, is an invasive insect pest of global importance that damages several crops, compromising agri-food production. Field monitoring procedures are fundamental to perform risk assessment operations, in order to promptly face crop infestations and avoid economical losses. To improve pest managemen...

The SCALIBUR project (Scalable Technologies for Bio-urban Waste Recovery – Horizon 2020 – CE-SFS-25-2018) aimed to investigate cutting-edge and sustainable approaches, including the use of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL, Hermetia illucens, Diptera, Stratiomyidae) for the bioconversion of waste deriving from the HO.RE.CA. sector to address the manag...

Although environmental sustainability and economic feasibility frameworks have been developed to evaluate the impact of insect farms, significant studies on the development of territorial suitability methods specifically tailored to insect production have not yet been performed. This work proposes a GIS-based multi criteria decision making analysis...

In the present work, a statistical optimization of a sustainable coating for core–shell NPK (Nitrogen–Phosphorus–Potassium) fertilizers was investigated. The environmental green coating was enriched in nitrogen using a biomass and renewable source, namely the nitrogen rich fraction of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) ( Hermetia Illucens , Diptera: S...

The presentation focuses on the behavioral resistance of houseflies to imidacloprid. During the experimentations, the responses of these pest (proboscis extension) were analyzed through tarsi and proboscis assays. The change in responses to different concentrations of the insecticide were also recorded for two strains of flies (susceptible and resi...

In the last decade, the invasive brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys, native to East Asia, has become one of the most serious pests for agricultural crops worldwide. First detected in Europe (in Switzerland), the insect is now widely found across the European continent and many Eurasian countries. Since its first appearance in Slovenia in...

The SCALIBUR project (Scalable Technologies for Bio-urban Waste Recovery – Horizon 2020 – CE-SFS-25-2018) aimed to explore innovative and sustainable solutions, including the use of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL, Hermetia illucens, Diptera, Stratiomyidae) for the bioconversion of waste deriving from the HO.RE.CA sector (Hotel-Restaurants-Catering)...

Nowadays, the mass production of insects is promoted not only for their nutritional value, but also for their ability to convert agri-food by-products into high valuable derived products. In the present work, the potential production of carotenoid-rich larvae of black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens (BSFL), was evaluated by rearing them on different...

The food and feed sector requires new sustainable sources of protein and innovative solutions for upcycling of food waste (former foodstuffs), which today is downcycled into energy or even wasted. This study aimed at evaluating the use of former foodstuff waste streams as feed substrate for Hermetia illucens (L.) larvae (black soldier fly larvae, B...

Allevare larve mosche soldato presso gli impianti di biogas per l'alimentazione zootecnica permette di valorizzare i substrati di alimentazione degli insetti e allo stesso tempo il calore in esubero. Fondamentale è utilizzare un sottoprodotto che permetta una veloce crescita delle larve e una buona produzione di metano.

This study follows a circular economy approach through the preliminary implementation of a coated porous inorganic material (PIM), studied as sustainable controlled release fertilizer, and its application for lettuce Lactuca sativa L. cultivar Chiara growth. The PIM was made of pumice scraps that partially replaced clay as a natural raw material, s...

The egg parasitoids Trissolcus japonicus (Ashmead) and Trissolcus mitsukurii (Ashmead) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) are the most effective biocontrol agents of the invasive agricultural pest Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) in its native range (east Asia). Trissolcus japonicus and T. mitsukurii are sympatric in the native areas. I...

In this work, we consider the problem of using a drone to collect information within orchards in order to scout insect pests, i.e., the stink bug Halyomorpha halys. An orchard can be modeled as an aisle-graph, which is a regular and constrained data structure formed by consecutive aisles where trees are arranged in a straight line. For monitoring t...

Halyomorpha halys (Stål, 1855) is an invasive agricultural pest in North America and Europe. Most of the information on H. halys predators in invaded areas comes from North America. This work focused on the molecular identification of arthropod predator species capable of feeding on H. halys in northern Italy. Predatory arthropods were collected in...

Demand for eggs from laying hens is increasing as the world population continues to grow. The use of insects as animal feed is a strategic opportunity to find a new innovative, economic and sustainable source of protein. The aim of this study was to evaluate the Italian consumer inclination for eggs produced with the use of insect-fed hens. The inv...

BACKGROUND Many groups of insects utilize substrate‐borne vibrations for intraspecific communication. This characteristic makes them a suitable model for exploring the use of vibrations as a tool for pest control as an alternative to the use of chemicals. Detailed knowledge of species communication is a prerequisite to select the best signals to us...

Insects are becoming increasingly relevant as protein sources in food and feed. The Black Soldier Fly (BSF) is one of the most utilized, thanks to its ability to live on many leftovers. Vegetable processing industries produce huge amounts of by-products, and it is important to efficiently rear BSF on different substrates to assure an economical adv...

A seguito del decreto "Misure di emergenza per la prevenzione, controllo e contrasto della cimice asiatica" del 29 aprile 2020, nell'estate 2020 è iniziato un lavoro coordinato di lotta biologica classica tramite rilasci inoculativi del parassitoide esotico Trissolcus japonicus (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) che ha coinvolto un'ampia area del Nord Ital...

In recent years, Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae, Cappaeini) has become an invasive pest in North America and Europe, where it caused extensive damage to agriculture, resulting in great economic losses. Evaluating the potential of native predators in the invaded areas, ants might represent good candidates thanks to their biology,...

Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), native to East Asia, has become a globally invasive pest, as a serious threat to agricultural production and a notorious nuisance pest in urban areas. Considerable efforts have been made so far to develop effective pest control measures to prevent crop damage. Biological control of this invasive stink bu...

Brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys, is native to Asia and has invaded North America and Europe inflicting serious agricultural damage to specialty and row crops. Tools to monitor the spread of H. halys include traps baited with the two-component aggregation pheromone (PHER), (3S,6S,7R,10S)-10,11-epoxy-1-bisabolen-3-ol and (3R,6S,7R,10S)-...

The brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys is an invasive agricultural pest with a worldwide distribution. Classical biological control has been identified as the most promising method to reduce the populations of H. halys. Adventive populations of two candidates for releases, Trissolcus japonicus and Trissolcus mitsukurii, have recently been...

The brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys is an invasive agricultural pest in North America and Europe, and also a dwelling nuisance in autumn, due to the overwintering adults aggregating inside buildings. The repellent potential of ginger, clove, vetiver and turmeric essential oils (EOs) was tested on H. halys adults of three different phys...

Aiming at reducing the environmental impact of low density polyethylene (LDPE) when employed as mulching film, this study was focused on the partial substitution of the material with proteins extracted from Hermetia illucens, also known as black soldier fly (BSF). Insects were reared on chicken manure and food leftovers in a circular economy perspe...

Worldwide, thousands of insect species are consumed as food or are used as feed ingredients. Hermetia illucens, 'black soldier fly', is one of them, and a large amount of puparia and dead adults flies are accumulated during rearing. These materials represent important wastes but no studies are still present in the literature regarding their functio...

Xylotrechus arvicola (Olivier) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) is a polyphagous xylophagous beetle that is becoming a pest of increasing importance for vineyards in Spain, also because of the wood fungi developing in the galleries excavated by its larvae, which cause a progressive decline of the affected grapevines, until death. Between 1993 and 2015, a...

Le industrie agroalimentari producono ingenti volumi di scarti, alcuni dei quali possono essere utilizzati come substrati per l’allevamento della mosca soldato, dalle cui larve è possibile ricavare nutrienti ad alto valore energetico utilizzabili sia in ambito alimentare-mangimistico, sia come combustibili, sia come ammendanti per l’agricoltura

The cradle to grave Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to the preparation of biomaterials derived from proteins, extracted from Black Soldier Flies (BSFs) prepupae, after the larvae were reared on poultry manure-based organic waste. In order to obtain higher added value biomolecules, extraction represents the fundamental step. Therefore, the e...

Using native North American parasitoid species (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) that often unsuccessfully attack the eggs of the invasive brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), we assessed variation in traits that may determine the parasitoids’ ability to adapt to the invasive host by either exploiting or avoiding H. haly...

Invasive stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) are responsible for high economic losses to agriculture on a global scale. The most important species, dating from recent to old invasions, include Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister), Halyomorpha halys (Stål), Piezodorus guildinii (Westwood), Nezara viridula (L.), and Murgantia histrionica (Hahn). Bagrada hil...

A protein-based film (PBF), obtained from black soldier fly prepupae proteins, was assessed for its agronomic performance as mulch. PBF was investigated in a potting experiment and compared with Mater-Bi (MB), polyethylene (PE) and bare soil. During the experiment, degraded surface area, weight and thickness of the film, water evaporated from the p...

The potential utilization of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) as food or feed is interesting due to the nutritive value and the sustainability of the rearing process. In the present study, larvae and prepupae of H. illucens were reared at 20, 27, and 33 °C, to determine whether temperature affects the whole insect microbiota, described using m...

A bbiamo già visto come le mo-sche soldato (Hermetia illu-cens) svolgano un ruolo im-portante nella ricerca (ne abbiamo parlato a pag. 56 del numero 4 di Waste, in merito al progetto NUTRI-FISH, realizzato dall'Università Politecnica delle Marche). Un altro progetto, che vede l'impiego di questi insetti è BIOECO-FLIES. Finanziato nel quadro del pro...

BACKGROUND The total amount of bio‐waste produced annually in the EU by the food and beverage chains is estimated at 37 billion kg. The use of insects for the valorization of by‐products from these value chains may represent a sustainable solution. This study aimed to investigate the by‐products obtained from different food chains and used for the...

The black soldier fly Hermetia illucens is gaining growing interest as a tool for the valorisation of bio-waste in a circular economy perspective. Although a wide variety of studies are available for larvae rearing, the indoor breeding of adults still presents a great challenge for industrial purposes. This study was designed to assess the simultan...

The increase of waste, due to the rise of the world population, renders the use of the black soldier fly (BSF; Hermetia illucens) as agri-food leftover biotransformer very attractive. Indeed, feeding on these substrates, BSF is capable of transforming them into valuable fat, proteins, and chitin. The present study is aimed at evaluating different a...

The increased request for poultry meat and eggs of a rising human population requires more efficient and cleaner methods to manage increasing quantities of chicken manure. The black soldier fly Hermetia illucens is known as an efficient bio-converter of organic waste in proteins and fats, with the advantage that the larval frass is supposed to have...

Due to the difficulties associated with detecting and correctly identifying mirids, developing an accurate species identification approach is crucial, especially for potential harmful species. Accurate identification is often hampered by inadequate morphological key characters, invalid and/or outdated systematics, and biases in the molecular data a...

Most of the leftovers from agricultural productions and industrial processing of vegetables are currently discarded as waste, augmenting production costs and environmental impacts. Black soldier flies (BSF) a