Tomatoes are one of the main horticultural crops of the Region of Murcia and whiteflies are one of its main threats, mostly due to the damage they cause when feeding and, above all, for transmitting viruses.
Consequently, the Council of Water, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Murcia has successfully carried out a test through the Murcian Institute for Agricultural Research and Development and Food (IMIDA) with the use of bottle gourd as a trap for whiteflies on the sides of greenhouses.
The control of this pest in the region is currently carried out mostly with integrated pest control methods; however, complementary techniques that can help reduce the migration of insect pests to the crop are also necessary. For this reason, the IMIDA has carried out tests to determine the suitability of bottle gourd as a trap plant for the whitefly.
The use of bottle gourds on the sides of the greenhouse as a barrier has led to a clear decline in whitefly populations. Thus, it can be considered an effective element in the design of agro-ecosystems, as well as an environmentally-friendly and viable practice that leads to an optimization in the biological regulation of the pest.
Next September, researchers from the Biological Control and Ecosystem Services Team of IMIDA will attend the 14th International Congress of the Working Group "Integrated control in protected crops, Mediterranean climate" of the International Organization for Biological Control. The event will be held in Portugal, where they will showcase the results of this project, which is funded by the National Institute of Agrarian Innovation and the European Fund for Rural Development (FEDER).