Certis Europe is a company that provides Biorationals, registered plant protection products generally derived from the natural environment. Among their products are micro-organisms, natural substances, and pheromones, and all products are officially registered under the crop protection guidelines.
One of the features that applies to many bio-control products is that they often require specific weather conditions to reach high efficacy and consistent control of pests, being less reliable under different climatic conditions than conventional products. Because they are often less long-lasting, they can require several applications, and not many can withstand the rain.
One of the solutions Certis focuses on is pest control with pheromones, which insects emit to, for instance, attract mates or find food. By using specific pheromones, these pests can be controlled. A major advantage of the pheromone is that it provides protection for a whole season, and, once positioned in the right place, they last up to 180 days and are barely dependent on weather conditions such as temperature, sunlight/UV, or rain.
There are, however, some challenges to the expansion of pheromone adoption: pheromones are often specific to one or two particular pests, so it is possible that additional treatment will be needed for others, the work required to make correct placements may be seen as costly and complicated in terms of positioning and spacing of the devices, and the need to have a contiguous area of at least 2 to 4 hectares for the pheromone treatment to achieve the best performance limits potential users.
However, when these challenges are met, the benefits could very well outweigh the costs.
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