The Uco experts looking biological tools to combat pests in Oaks and cork oaks

A group of researchers from the Department of science and agricultural resources and forestry of the University of Cordoba, it is proposed to reduce environmental pollution and the imbalances caused by the use of insecticides in forest areas. For this reason, investigate different methods of biological control in Oaks and cork oaks, two of the most representative species of the forest area in Andalusia, whose total area is 4.658.105 hectares. This figure represents 53% of the regional territory, a high percentage when compared with the Spain (17%) and the European Union (31%).

With a vast wooded area, Andalusia is one of the territories where afforestation is positioned as an important economic and ecological resource. A team of experts, led by Enrique Vargas Osuna, years of research has focused on the study of microorganisms (bacteria, viruses and fungi) that affect the butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) and thus control their population and, thus, control these pests that cause the loss of the foliage of Oaks and cork oaks. An evil that affects the production of the fruit and the general State of the tree to reduce the photosynthetic capacity of the plant. Pérez Guerrero, one of the researchers that coordinates these studies from the higher technical school of agronomists and Montes, explains the importance of the role of these insects when they eat leaves of these species in the genus Quercus: "the defoliators exercised a leading role in trophic chains"that is nutritious, serving of food to many predators and Parasitoids and promote the recycling of the elements in the forest ecosystem. "However, under certain conditions, some species, like the Lymantria Dispar, constitute major forest pests worldwide".

Butterfly Catocala Nymphagoga, one of the species of Lepidoptera caused more economic havoc in the sector.

The work of the Uco is underway with the main defoliadoras species in the woodlands of the North of the province of Córdoba. Prospective methods of vareo selected isolated natives of baculovirus and fungi with a capacity of infective against these species of butterflies and moths, and thus subsequently control the population and with it, the defoliation of oak. A sampling that allows to study different families of Lepidoptera (forming a map) that affect the genus Quercus, of great economic importance for the sector as the species, Catocala nymphagoga and the Tortrix viridiana.