National Sterile Insect Technique Day, Tuesday 2 December 2025 at the CTIFL centre in Balandran.

The increasing spread and economic impact of Halyomorpha halys in Europe highlights the need for area-wide suppression strategies that can integrate with existing IPM programs. This contribution summarizes the operational prerequisites and current evidence supporting the feasibility of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) for H. halys. Overwintering males were collected, maintained under controlled diapause-breaking protocols, and irradiated with 32–40 Gy using a medical linear accelerator. These doses ensured >95% sterility and strong F1 mortality, while preserving key quality parameters such as adult longevity, mating performance, and competitive ability in no-choice conditions. Parallel work addressed core operational constraints, including the development of efficient live-capture traps to support colony maintenance, evaluation of mass-rearing bottlenecks, and the assessment of irradiated eggs as substrates for Trissolcus japonicus for integration with classical biological control. The combined results identify the critical steps required for SIT deployment, collection and overwintering logistics, irradiation workflow, quality control, and release strategy, and provide a framework for future semi-field and field trials aimed at validating SIT as a complementary tool for managing H. halys on a landscape scale.