Drosophila suzukii, a vinegar fly originated from Southeast Asia, has recently invaded western countries, and it has been recognized as an important threat of a wide variety of several commercial soft fruits. This review summarizes the current information about the biology and dispersal of D. suzukii and discusses the current status and prospects of control methods for the management of this pest. We highlight current knowledge and ongoing research on innovative environmental-friendly control methods with emphasis on the sterile insect technique (SIT) and the incompatible insect technique (IIT). SIT has been successfully used for the containment, suppression or even eradication of populations of insect pests. IIT has been proposed as a stand-alone tool or in conjunction with SIT for insect pest control. The principles of SIT and IIT are reviewed, and the potential value of each approach in the management of D. suzukii is analyzed. We thoroughly address the challenges of SIT and IIT, and we propose the use of SIT as a component of an area-wide integrated pest management approach to suppress D. suzukii populations. As a contingency plan, we suggest a promising alternative avenue through the combination of these two techniques, SIT/IIT, which has been developed and is currently being tested in open-field trials against Aedes mosquito populations. All the potential limiting factors that may render these methods ineffective, as well as the requirements that need to be fulfilled before their application, are discussed.

The spotted wing Drosophila, Drosophila suzukii, is a new pest in Europe and America which causes severe damages, mostly to stone fruit crops. Temperature and humidity are among the most important abiotic factors governing insect development and fitness. In many situations, temperature can become stressful thus compromising survival. The ability to cope with thermal stress depends on basal level of thermal tolerance. Basic knowledge on temperature-dependent mortality of D. suzukii is essential to facilitate management of this pest. The objective of the present study was to investigate D. suzukii basal cold and heat tolerance. Adults and pupae were subjected to six low temperatures (−5–7.5 °C) and seven high temperatures (30–37 °C) for various durations, and survival-time-temperature relationships were investigated. Data showed that males were globally more cold tolerant than females. At temperature above 5 °C, adult cold mortality became minor even after prolonged exposures (e.g., only 20% mortality after one month at 7.5 °C). Heat tolerance of males was lower than that of females at the highest tested temperatures (34, 35 and 37 °C). Pupae appeared much less cold tolerant than adults at all temperatures (e.g., Lt50 at 5° C: 4–5 d for adults vs. 21 h for pupae). Pupae were more heat tolerant than adults at the most extreme high temperatures (e.g., Lt50 at 37 °C: 30 min for adults vs. 4 h for pupae). The pupal thermal tolerance was further investigated under low vs. high humidity. Low relative humidity did not affect pupal cold survival, but it reduced survival under heat stress. Overall, this study shows that survival of D. suzukii under heat and cold conditions can vary with stress intensity, duration, humidity, sex and stage, and the methodological approach used here, which was based on thermal tolerance landscapes, provides a comprehensive description of D. suzukiithermal tolerance and limits.