It’s a bug-eat-bug world

Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu’s BioBee labs give the world eco-friendly insects.

By MIRIAM KRESH
The mealybug ladybird in action. (photo credit: Courtesy)
The mealybug ladybird in action.
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Meet the predatory beetle, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri, a.k.a. the mealybug destroyer ladybird. This ladybird loves to eat mealybugs.
For farmers, that’s good news – because mealybugs are a disastrous pest. They suck the juices out of tender plant stalks, and their saliva is toxic. Leaves, blossoms and fruit die. What’s worse, mealybugs secrete a sugary substance called honeydew as they feed, leaving a nutritious environment for sooty mold to grow on which further damages plants.
These pests infest citrus and other fruit trees, vegetables, flowers, vineyards and field crops. They hide under leaves and bark, and even at the roots of plants, so that sprayed pesticides miss part of the infestation. Badly infested grapevines may wear thick layers of honeydew that resemble candle wax, where bugs, their eggs and mold thrive in a sticky mess.
With more governments restricting pesticide use on food crops, natural pest control has become an urgent issue. BioBee Sde Eliyahu Ltd., among the world leaders in integrated pest management, has combined biology and hi-tech concepts to produce an eco-friendly solution: Live insects that prey on mealybugs and other crop pests.
One such ally developed in the Sde Eliyahu facility is the mealybug ladybird, which attacks mealybugs and soft-scale insects. It’s a small, dark brown beetle with an orange head, wing tips and abdomen... and a ferocious hunger.
Released into an infested area, the ladybird instantly seeks out mealybugs and their eggs, devouring them as they’re found. In about a month’s time, remains of dead mealybugs prove the system’s success. New generations of ladybird larvae are also in evidence, and when they develop into adulthood the mealybug population drops drastically.
Another insect ally is the Anagyrus pseudococci, a formidable name for a parasitic wasp. It pierces a hole in the body of the mealybug and lays an egg in its living interior. When the larva hatches, it eats the mealybug from the inside, effectively making a mummy out of it, then digs its way out and emerges as an adult. Gruesome? Well, yes. It’s a bug-eat-bug world out there.
BioBee finds that treating infested crops with a combination of the two bugs is more effective than using just one. While the ladybird settles down in highly infested areas to consume mealybugs at leisure, the wasp prefers spots that are not densely infested; so it’s more useful at the early stages of an infestation.
Rami Friedman, BioBee export manager, says in an email interview, “BioBee’s main clients for the parasitic BioAnagyrus wasps are citrus and grape growers in South Africa, Spain, Italy and Israel.”
In the 2014-2015 growing season, some 6,500 hectares (16,062 acres) of citrus and 1,500 hectares (3,707 acres) of grapes were biologically treated in South Africa. “The wasps are not invasive,” Friedman notes, “as they exist in nature in all of these countries.”
The Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) is another devastating pest that’s come under BioBee’s laboratory scrutiny. Medfly is a scourge in the Mediterranean and neighboring countries including Israel, attacking citrus and olive trees among others. In 2004, BioBee founded a subsidiary, BioFly, that supplies sterile male Medflies from its mass rearing facility. When released, the sterile males mate with wild female Medflies, which then lay infertile eggs. The company’s climate-controlled production facility can now produce some 15 million sterile male pupae and adult flies a week.
BioBee came by its name when it began breeding pollinating bees. Israeli’s bee population suffers less from colony collapse than American and European bees, but even so, large numbers have succumbed to invasive viruses, expanding construction on open areas where their natural food supply grew, and pesticides.
Friedman explains, “The Bombus terrestris bumblebee reared at BioBee facilities has been found to be the most efficient pollinator of tomatoes grown in protected cultivation (greenhouses, nethouses etc.). Importing this bumblebee to countries where it’s native isn’t a problem. In some countries where it’s not a native species, importation is allowed, as the local authorities realize their important role in tomato production.”
Measures are used to keep bumblebee queens from escaping the greenhouses, so they don’t establish colonies in the outside environment. Tomato yields are 25 percent higher with BioBees, compared to manual pollination. As a home gardener who employs cotton swabs to transfer pollen from one tomato flower to another, I’d be delighted to let the bees do the job.
BioBee and BioFly export friendly insects to 32 countries. Their website states: “Company products are currently used in a joint Israeli-Jordanian project in the Arava-Araba Valley, and in the future will be distributed to countries in the Mediterranean Basin and to neighboring Arab countries, and will serve as a bridge for regional cooperation.
“In addition to these products, BioFly provides professional consultancy and comprehensive support services for Medfly control projects, including project definition, planning and implementation in the field.”
BioBee’s continuing support service is critical for farmers. Each kind of insect is packaged, transported and stored under specific conditions. Each one is released into infested crop areas according to individual instructions. Beetles and wasps are released directly into crop areas, for example, while sterile Medflies are sometimes dispersed from the air. Trained BioBee professionals accompany the farmers, to ensure the most efficient pest-control procedures.
While farmers say that friendly insects don’t eliminate 100% of pests, the success rate is still quite high. BioBee claims an 80% reduction in pesticide use for crops such as sweet peppers and strawberries. In the North’s mango groves, BioFly’s technique has reduced pesticide use by 70%.
Today, chemical industries work day and night to develop ever stronger strains of pesticides, while insects grow resistant and humans eat produce sprayed with these chemicals. This reporter remembers years in Israel when strawberries were so highly sprayed with pesticides that she refused to buy them. How great to expect fruit that’s almost pesticide-free.
Less pesticides mean safer fruit and vegetables for us to eat, and also mean significantly safer conditions for field workers. In the long run, it also means that more pollinators will survive to ensure the global food supply.
BioBee has established subsidiaries in Chile, Colombia, India and recently South Africa. Friedman concludes, “BioBee’s largest sales are in Israel, of course. Nevertheless, our global activities are increasing rapidly.”
BioBee expects that the field of biological pest control will expand to at least five times its present size in the next few years.