Arnie Phifer| Mar. 22, 2013 | Notre Dame College of Science
In August 2011, researchers from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) were presented with a serious, and potentially very costly, puzzle in Kennewick, WA. Since Kennewick lies within a region near the heart of Washington State’s $1.5B apple-growing region, an annual survey of fruit trees is performed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) to look for any invading insects. This time the surveyors discovered a crabapple tree that had been infested by a fruit fly that they couldn’t identify.
That's where researchers from the University of Notre Dame stepped in.