Research interests
Michelle specialises in the minimisation of pesticide use in fruit horticulture, improving pollination in fruit crops and incorporating modern fruit growing practices with Integrated Pest Management. The former includes research on improving pest monitoring by developing semiochemical manipulation of insects, optimising the use of biological control agents and enhancing and fostering local landscape ecology to provide the ecosystem service of pest control.
Her pollination research focuses on the delivery of insect pollinators to fruit crops through identification of key species and enhancement of habitat in and around crops, including wildflower and nesting resource establishment. She leads research on invasive pest species, such as, Drosophila suzukii, Halyomorpha halys and Anthonomus sp. and is a taxonomic specialist of Collembola, Araneae and fruit crop fauna.
She communicates research to growers and agronomists and presents papers at national and international conferences. She also authors best practice guidelines and factsheets for pest control in fruit crops and edits books and papers in specialist areas of fruit entomology and is Convenor of the Expert Group: "Integrated Protection of Fruit Crops"
Research projects
- EU Interreg North Sea Region (2019) Benefitting ecosystems through evaluation of food supplies for pollination to open up knowledge for end users (BEESPOKE)
- AHDB (2020-2023) Soft Pest SF 174 Improving integrated pest management in soft fruit crops
- Farming Innovation Pathways (FIP) (2021-2023) Industrial research New Sustainable Solution To Save Healthy Fruit From Spotted Wing Drosophila: STOP-SPOT: 10006250
- Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme (2022-2024) Development of pheromones for innovative management of forest bug, an emerging pest of orchards in England: FORBUG 10027494
- SusCrop – ERA-NET (2023-2026) £100K Connections in the landscape. Role of landscape complexity in agroecosystem sustainability
Publications
Recent publications
- Garratt, Michael; Fountain, Michelle T; Kinneen, Lois; Mitschunas, Nadine; Truslove, Louise; Xavier, Celina; Jenner, Nigel; Ashdown, Caroline; Brittain, Claire; Butcher, Charnee; Sutton, Peter; O'Connor, Rory; Carvell, Claire; Breeze, Tom; Pywell, Richard; Redhead, John; McKerchar, Megan; Edwards, Mike; Nowakowski, Marek; Potts, Simon (2023) Addressing pollination deficits in orchard crops through habitat management for wild pollinators. Ecological Applications
- Buck, N; Fountain, MT; Potts, SG; Bishop, J; Garratt, MPD (2023) The effects of non-crop habitat on Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) abundance in fruit systems: a meta-analysis. Agricultural and Forest Entomology
- Tsiolis K., Potts S.G., Garratt M., Tilston E.L., Burman J., Rintoul-Hynes N.L.J., Fountain M.T. (2022) The importance of soil and vegetation characteristics for establishing ground-nesting bee aggregations. Journal of Pollination Ecology, 32, 186–200
- Jones R., Eady P.E., Goddard M.R., Fountain M.T. (2022) The Efficacy of Yeast Phagostimulant Baits in Attract-and-Kill Strategies Varies between Summer- and Winter-Morphs of Drosophila suzukii. Insects, 13, 995.
- Noble R., Shaw B., Walker A., Whitfield E.C., Deakin G., Harris A., Dobrovin-Pennington A., Fountain M.T. (2022) Control of spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) in sweet cherry and raspberry using bait sprays. J Pest Sci.