News + Medienecho

10 days long our institute hosted an ELLS Summer School, which took part in Gregor Mendel Haus in Vienna. The topic focused on "Biocontrol of insects and mites: status quo and prospective challenges".

We started on 1^st and 2^nd July with two e-learning courses about biocontrol in agriculture and invasive pest species in forests, followed by a welcome party a few days later, after our guests had arrived to Vienna.

It was a pleasure to welcome a student group of 13 international young researchers and further more international renowned researches, who were invited to talk about their fields of research.

On 7^th July the group started its week with some interesting talks about topics throughout biological control of insects and mites. A highlight was a trip to “Obsthof Haas” in Styria on the 8th July. The orchard farm is part of a current research project (CliMiteApple) and project partner of Andreas Walzer who was responsible for the scientific program of the Summer School 2025. Beside an introduction of pest management on organic apples the group learned about managing and effects of climate warming on mite diversity, about effects of reduced pesticide application and about the effects of flower strips in apple orchards on natural enemies. The visit in the orchard was also used to collect apple leaves for insect and mite identification which later on took part, back in Vienna.

Back in Vienna on 9^th July our business partner “biohelp” gave insights to mass-rearing of predatory mites and of the status quo of biocontrol in Austria.

On 10^th and 11^th of July the group concentrated then on the practical part by identifying insects and mites on the collected leaves and giving presentations to finalize the project ELLS Summer School 2025.

After this very intensive working program the group joined in a social dinner at the end of the event.

Some nice pictures will help us to remember the exciting time we had.

Thanks to everybody who was part of this great network these days and who helped to bring together interesting topics, research results and prospective ideas for our future.