THE RELEASES OF PREDATORS WILL BE CARRIED OUT IN PARKS AND GARDENS AND BANANA CROPS OF TENERIFE.

The Canarian Institute of Agrarian Research, ICIA, has launched a new stage of the process of biological control against the spiral whitefly, with the controlled release of insects that act as predators of this pest in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and who have been raised on the Islands.

These are the first coccinellids, Nephaspis bicolor (from the Caribbean) and parasitoids, Encarsiella noyesi (California), produced in the ICIA insectaries, fruit of the studies developed for the identification, import and breeding of natural enemies that allow controlling this disease that affects the banana tree and ornamental plants of the Archipelago.

The experimental releases of these insects, similar to a ladybug, They will continue until the month of November in parks and gardens of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, municipality that already collaborated in previous years with the ICIA and the Canarian Foundation for the Development and Promotion of Agrarian Research in the Canary Islands, FUNDESIMCA, in field work carried out in affected areas.

They will also be carried out on organic banana cultivation plots where the Biomusa project of the Madeira-Canary Islands-Azores Transnational Cooperation Program is being carried out. (PCT-MAC 2007-2013), initiative aimed at the sustainable development of banana production in the Outermost Regions, in which Asprocan and the University of La Laguna also participate.

The researchers distribute sixty coccinellids and about one hundred parasitoids in each of the specimens affected by whiteflies that have not been treated with phytosanitary products.. These essays, They are the result of five years of work by the ICIA Plant Protection Department, coordinated by researcher Estrella Hernández, that since 2005 has the support of FUNDESIMCA.

Because the chemical controls carried out to date have not given satisfactory results, the biological fight, i.e., through the use of natural enemies, It is emerging as the best option to control this pest in the long term and the most respectful of the environment..

The whitefly causes a significant aesthetic impact on ornamental species present in parks and gardens., due to the secretions and abundant excretion of honeydew produced by the larvae, on which fungi known as “bold”. In banana cultivation, This indirect damage requires washing the fruit in the packaging and has caused economic losses due to depreciation of its commercial quality..

The most widespread treatment against whiteflies consists of cleaning the affected plants with water and potassium soaps., although its location in landscaped urban areas together with the inaccessible location of large trees, mean that the methods used must be repeated periodically to avoid new infestations, which entails a high cost.