4.2.1 Overview of Biocontrol Programs in the Main Spanish
Protected Vegetables .......................................................................................... 103
4.2.2 Analysis of Almeria’s Model ............................................................................. 108
4.3 Role of Bioindustry ........................................................................................................ 109
4.4 Predatory Mites .............................................................................................................. 115
4.4.1 An Inert Diet....................................................................................................... 118
4.4.2 The Sachet á La Carte........................................................................................ 118
4.5 Predatory Bugs ............................................................................................................... 119
4.6 Conclusions..................................................................................................................... 122
References................................................................................................................................ 123
4.1 Introduction
The recent development and adoption of IPM programs in Spain on horticultural
protected crops is a good example of how well biological control can function and
can contribute to transform the agriculture toward a more sustainable system. The
plant protection system in the southeast Spanish greenhouses, where the highest
concentration of protected crops of the world have developed in the last decades,
has shifted from a traditional example of environmental and public health risk
toward a reference model to be followed by other crop production areas. The
analysis of this transformation, as a case study, may help to establish and discuss
the critical factors that are needed worldwide for entering the ecology-based pest
management era and the challenges that have to be faced for a more broad
adoption of biological control strategies.
Biosystems engineering progress to mass rear beneficial insects and mites and
the professional development of productions, although they have deserved little
attention when discussing the success or failure of IPM, are some of the main
factors that have contributed to improve the biocontrol programs. The biological
control programs of pests in most of the greenhouses are based commonly not only
in the natural control of the spontaneously colonizing natural enemies, but also on
augmentative biological control. This means releases of entomophaga that have
been mass reared by biomanufacturers in each crop and season. A recent review of
the commercially available natural enemies describes 230 species (van Lenteren
2012), but this number may have increased, at least one species more, named
Trichogramma achaeae Nagaraja and Nagarkatti (Hym.: Trichogrammatidae),
produced and released in several countries by the authors of this chapter (Fig. 4.1)
(Cabello et al. 2012a, b). During the last decades, it has moved from a cottage
industry to professional production, which has identified many efficient species of
natural enemies, developed quality control protocols, mass production, shipment
and release methods, as well as adequate guidance for farmers (van Lenteren
2003). However, commercial augmentative biological control is applied on a very
limited scale, i.e., on 0.4 % of cultivated land with crops of which this type of
control could be used (Cock et al. 2010). Some of the crucial causes explaining the
limited uptake are the attitude of the pesticide industry, the pesticides use customs
100
E. Vila and T. Cabello
Protected Vegetables .......................................................................................... 103
4.2.2 Analysis of Almeria’s Model ............................................................................. 108
4.3 Role of Bioindustry ........................................................................................................ 109
4.4 Predatory Mites .............................................................................................................. 115
4.4.1 An Inert Diet....................................................................................................... 118
4.4.2 The Sachet á La Carte........................................................................................ 118
4.5 Predatory Bugs ............................................................................................................... 119
4.6 Conclusions..................................................................................................................... 122
References................................................................................................................................ 123
4.1 Introduction
The recent development and adoption of IPM programs in Spain on horticultural
protected crops is a good example of how well biological control can function and
can contribute to transform the agriculture toward a more sustainable system. The
plant protection system in the southeast Spanish greenhouses, where the highest
concentration of protected crops of the world have developed in the last decades,
has shifted from a traditional example of environmental and public health risk
toward a reference model to be followed by other crop production areas. The
analysis of this transformation, as a case study, may help to establish and discuss
the critical factors that are needed worldwide for entering the ecology-based pest
management era and the challenges that have to be faced for a more broad
adoption of biological control strategies.
Biosystems engineering progress to mass rear beneficial insects and mites and
the professional development of productions, although they have deserved little
attention when discussing the success or failure of IPM, are some of the main
factors that have contributed to improve the biocontrol programs. The biological
control programs of pests in most of the greenhouses are based commonly not only
in the natural control of the spontaneously colonizing natural enemies, but also on
augmentative biological control. This means releases of entomophaga that have
been mass reared by biomanufacturers in each crop and season. A recent review of
the commercially available natural enemies describes 230 species (van Lenteren
2012), but this number may have increased, at least one species more, named
Trichogramma achaeae Nagaraja and Nagarkatti (Hym.: Trichogrammatidae),
produced and released in several countries by the authors of this chapter (Fig. 4.1)
(Cabello et al. 2012a, b). During the last decades, it has moved from a cottage
industry to professional production, which has identified many efficient species of
natural enemies, developed quality control protocols, mass production, shipment
and release methods, as well as adequate guidance for farmers (van Lenteren
2003). However, commercial augmentative biological control is applied on a very
limited scale, i.e., on 0.4 % of cultivated land with crops of which this type of
control could be used (Cock et al. 2010). Some of the crucial causes explaining the
limited uptake are the attitude of the pesticide industry, the pesticides use customs
100
E. Vila and T. Cabello