Advances in Integrated Pest Control in Horticultural Crops

The project is a coordinate one between the University of Lleida (UdL), Agrotecnio, and the Catalan Institute for Agrarian Research and Technology (IRTA), and it is led by IRTA.
The overall objective of the project is improving the biological control of pests in vegetable (tomato) and fruit (peach and apple) crops. Those are crops which are grown in large surfaces, have a significant economic and social weight in the production areas and have great importance in the diet of Spanish and European citizens. The project focus on pests including Lepidoptera in tomato, especially Tuta absoluta, and aphids and Lepidoptera in peach and apple, especially Grapholita molesta.
The improvement of the control of these pests will be addressed from the following perspectives: (1) enhancing conservation biological control of Lepidoptera on tomato and Lepidoptera and aphids in fruit crops; and (2) improving the control of G. molesta by conducting studies of the pest’s olfaction response, its insecticide resistance, the basic traits of its biology and its spatial distribution at medium scale.
With the results of this project we foresee to improve the control of T. absoluta in tomato crops and of aphids and G. molesta on apple and peach orchards, reducing the use of insecticides and increasing the use of biological and biotechnological control tools.