Articles
INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT IN VEGETABLE PROTECTED CROPS IN THE OESTE REGION
Article number
917_11
Pages
93 – 101
Language
English
Abstract
Greenhouse pests affecting vegetable production and their control measures have been studied since 1986 in the Oeste region, Portugal.
Results are based on several national funded research projects conducted to the definition and validation of risk assessment methodologies for key-pests, mainly by scouting but also through devices such as coloured and pheromone traps.
Decision rules for the available control measures were developed and adjusted.
Alternative control measures for chemicals were studied in detail, mainly supported by conservation of abundant and diverse autochthonous or introduced beneficial arthropods.
Special attention to the impor¬tance of ecological infrastructures (e.g., outside crops, hedgerows, and field margins weeds), so common under Mediterranean conditions, was also a major target.
Furthermore, greenhouse structures and certain usual production techniques can strengthen the role of functional biodiversity avoiding some unnecessary pesticide sprays.
On the other hand, the wide adoption of bumblebees by growers imposed the adoption of soft control measures enhancing biological control development.
Major parasitoids and predators were identified, their population dynamics were evaluated, and their control effect was demonstrated for whiteflies, leafminers, caterpillars, aphids, thrips, and spider mites.
Growers who manage to establish major arthropod equilibria in their greenhouses can afford some crop seasons without any biological or chemical treatments for pest control.
Even the recently introduced tomato miner moth, Tuta absoluta, was observed to be abundantly, although not sufficiently, predated by naturally occurring mirid bugs.
Results are based on several national funded research projects conducted to the definition and validation of risk assessment methodologies for key-pests, mainly by scouting but also through devices such as coloured and pheromone traps.
Decision rules for the available control measures were developed and adjusted.
Alternative control measures for chemicals were studied in detail, mainly supported by conservation of abundant and diverse autochthonous or introduced beneficial arthropods.
Special attention to the impor¬tance of ecological infrastructures (e.g., outside crops, hedgerows, and field margins weeds), so common under Mediterranean conditions, was also a major target.
Furthermore, greenhouse structures and certain usual production techniques can strengthen the role of functional biodiversity avoiding some unnecessary pesticide sprays.
On the other hand, the wide adoption of bumblebees by growers imposed the adoption of soft control measures enhancing biological control development.
Major parasitoids and predators were identified, their population dynamics were evaluated, and their control effect was demonstrated for whiteflies, leafminers, caterpillars, aphids, thrips, and spider mites.
Growers who manage to establish major arthropod equilibria in their greenhouses can afford some crop seasons without any biological or chemical treatments for pest control.
Even the recently introduced tomato miner moth, Tuta absoluta, was observed to be abundantly, although not sufficiently, predated by naturally occurring mirid bugs.
Authors
E. Figueiredo , A. Mexia, C. Mateus, M.C. Godinho, S. Rodrigues
Keywords
biological control, ecological infrastructures, conservation, risk assessment
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