EFFICIENCY OF ANTI-INSECT SCREENS PLACED IN THE VENTS OF ALMERÍA GREENHOUSES

The use of anti-insect screens placed on greenhouse vents has become generalized in warm climate areas, where there is a big pressure from insect pests which transmit virus diseases.
Increasing the efficiency of the screens to reduce the entrance of pests into the greenhouse generally involves a reduction of the ventilation rate as the screen porosity is lower.
This can, in part, be compensated by using screens with lower diameter of the threads which allows a higher porosity for the same efficiency to exclude insects.
In the present work the characteristics of the most commonly used anti-insect screens in Almería greenhouses, including their porosity, hole size and thread diameter were measured.
Equations were developed which determined the geometric parameters of the screens accounting for their three dimensional nature.
These equations enabled the effectiveness of screens in excluding insects from the greenhouse to be quantified.
This allows a comparison between screens, and therefore selecting the most efficient giving maximum insect exclusion with maximum porosity.

International Symposium on Greenhouse Cooling

F.J. Cabrera, J.C. Lopez, E.J. Baeza, J.J. Pérez-Parra

screens, porous media, climate control, insect exclusion, physical control, ventilation

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2006.719.70