Biocontrol product Toltek, manufactured by Certis Biologicals in the USA and distributed by Certis Belchim in Europe, has taken thetop prize at this year’s BernardBlum Awards.
Announced at the 19th edition of ABIM (Annual Biocontrol Industry Meeting), held 19-23 October in Basel, Switzerland, the Bernard Blum Awards recognise innovation in the biocontrol industry. The Awards are organised by IBMA – International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association – and have been running since 2015.
The ceremony was chaired by Alain Querrioux, from Andermatt France and Treasurer of IBMA Global, who gave an outline of the criteria considered by an independent panel of judges.
The gold award went to the biofungicide product Toltek, the first biocontrol product for Take-All disease, which affects grass and cereal crops. When receiving the award on behalf of Certis Belchim, Jan Mostert said that the active ingredient in Toltek was a microbial and “it is not easy to make it survive as a seed treatment.” The microorganism is Bacillus amyloliquefaciens D747.
The silver award went to Cearitis and SATT Sayens for a combination insect repulsion-trapping product Remo – Samo – Pera; and bronze went to Belgium company Biotalys for its protein-based biocontrol product Evoca.
The award for best product assisting the uptake of biocontrol went to Australia’s The Crop Capsules Company and its product CottonCAP – a capsule dropped by aircraft on cotton acres containing Eretmocerus hayati larvae that feed on the pest silverleaf whitefly. ●
Toltek, manufactured byCertis Biologicals in the USA and distributed byCertis Belchim in Europe, has taken the top prize at this year’s Bernard Blum AwardPhoto: IBMA
For the first time, the mycophagous beetle Sericoderus lateralis was documented feeding on tomato leaf mould (Cladosporium fulvum) tissues.
The phenomenon was observed during the years 2022 and 2023 in a hydroponic tomato greenhouse situated near the Czech-Polish border within the cadastre of Dolní Lutyně municipality in Czechia.
According to a research paper published in the Journal of Plant Protection Research, greenhouse and laboratory observations confirmed that adult and larvae feeding activity led to a reduction in tomato leaf mould lesions. In addition, there was a positive correlation between tomato leaf mould disease progression and increased populations of S. lateralis in the tomato crop. Petri dish observations confirmed egg laying occurred on a diet of tomatoleaf mould.
The study’s authors said further research is warranted to discern whether S. lateralis is a potential biological control agent for tomato leaf mould or if it acts to facilitate the spread of the disease by acting as a spore vector.
The researchers included Václav Psota, Production Greenhouse, Farma Bezdínek s.r.o., Czech Republic; Jan Bezděk, Department of Zoology, Fisheries, Hydrobiology and Apiculture, Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic; and Liam Harvey, IPS Department, Biobest Group NV, Belgium. ●
Drosophila suzukii, a pervasive fruit fly pest originating from Southeast Asia, presents a substantial risk to global agriculture. The ability of the female flies to lay eggs within fruits of varying maturity stages, combined with the accelerated offspring development within warmer climates, results in rapid population growth. This poses significant challenges for fruit production and viticulture, exacerbated by the increasing prevalence of pesticide resistance.
In a recently-published study, researchers proposed a solution to this issue using an attract-and-kill approach by making use of upcycled organic waste materials made from orange peels. Specifically, they tested an innovative salty orange peel product (OPP) in a choice experiment, in which OPP and hydrogel (control) were made available to fruit flies in Petri dishes situated beneath red wine grapes. The number of dead flies in both Petri dishes were counted each day and fly maggots inside berries were extracted after four days.
Since Petri dishes were covered with a red lid, flies only selected on the basis of olfactory cues. Results showed a higher number of captured flies in Petri dishes containing OPP compared to those with the hydrogel control. Furthermore, a notable reduction in the number of maggots was observed inside grapes located above OPP compared to the grapes closer to the hydrogel control. Dilution of OPP was followed by a lower count of dead flies.
In additional choice experiments, the concentration of NaCl was found to be positively correlated with the number of dead flies. This suggests an important lethal effect caused by high salt concentrations.
In a final experiment, OPP was also compared to the commercially-available attractant called Drosalure, which resulted in a slightly higher attractiveness of OPP to D. suzukii. These findings suggest that OPP holds potential as a cost-efficient and eco-friendly biocide made from organic waste material. OPP offered in attract-and-kill traps equipped with small entry holes is safe for bees and may replace other lesseco-friendly control measures forD. suzukii in organic vineyards. ●
Apples and Pears New Zealand is investing NZ$598,370 into a five-year project to find new and more effective ways to control bronze beetle. The project is being backed by $888,630 of funding from the Ministry for Primary Industries' Sustainable Food and FibreFutures Fund.
The project will develop and trial new biocontrol products, and to evaluate the effectiveness of a lure to attract and trap females through the use of male pheromones.
Apples and Pears research and development manager Rachel Kilmister said bronze beetle is more of an issue for organic growers because they have limited options for controlling it; in organic orchards, bronze beetle is damaging more than 25 percent of the crop.
Kilmister said they want to develop a trap to help monitor populations of the pest and come up with new biocontrol options. "We'll do things like test pesticides that are available in New Zealand and internationally that we can either apply to the soil or the tree. We're also looking at whether we can plant endophyte grasses in the soil around the apple orchard and how they might work. We're hoping they'd emit natural chemicals into the soil which would affect the bronze beetle larvae and prevent them from coming up at springtime." ●
Apple orchard,Richmond, Tasman,South Island, New Zealand
Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy
