Fewer pesticides for strawberries with a helper: green lacewing larvae on guard

The Beginning of Winter has just passed, and from next month through the following year it will be strawberry season. Many people look forward to going out into the fields themselves to experience picking strawberries, but thin-skinned, tender-fleshed strawberries are heavily treated with pesticides. Earlier this year, the New Taipei City Health Department once sampled strawberries and found fenbutatin oxide exceeding the limit by 35 times, which startled many people.

To reduce pesticide use on strawberries, the Biological Control Branch of the Miaoli Improvement Station has long conducted research on and field releases of the "Mallada basalis green lacewing," hoping to reduce pesticide use; however, farmers report poor results, and because green lacewings are not easy to obtain, no results have yet been seen.

Yu Chih-ju, assistant research fellow in the Applied Zoology Division of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, said, "Green lacewings are a very effective beneficial insect; it is just that the timing of release needs attention," because Mallada basalis has stronger predatory capacity during the larval stage. If pest damage is found to be very severe during field monitoring, then releasing green lacewing eggs is too late to help, and it also leaves the green lacewings too isolated and weak. If used together with other non-pesticide materials, the effect is better.

(This article received personnel funding sponsored by the Jianzhen Environmental Education Foundation as a special project, but the foundation completely does not interfere with news topic selection or interview writing, ensuring news independence.)