Spanish scientists developed a model to predict egg hatching of the X. fastidiosa’s vector Philaenus spumarius in the Iberian Peninsula. In a paper published on Environmental Entomology, researchers present the model and the results of its use in calculating the best timing for applying control actions against P. spumarius. The conclusions “suggest that controlling nymphs at two different dates would target the highest percentages of nymphal populations present in the field”, researchers write.

P. spumarius overwinters in the egg stage, and its nymphs emerge in late winter or spring. Researchers monitored eggs from oviposition to hatching and collected data on the daily temperatures and humidity in four fields at different altitudes in central Spain. Then, they used the data to build the forecast model, which can be used to make decisions in the strategies to control the vector population.