Biological control in cut flowers

Abstract

While globalization has spread economic, political and social relations among countries, international competition has increased. This competition has also increased the use of pesticides in order to enhance productivity and quality, and now it poses a threat to the environment and human health. While the yield and quality of cut flowers are the most important features for the producer, visual quality is the foreground of consumer satisfaction. Both yield and visual quality are exposed to the threats by many harmful pests (red spider mites, thrips, white fly, mealybug, leaf beetle, fly leaf gallery, etc.) and as a result, economic losses are experienced. In cut flowers, the problems of development of tolerance or resistance to chemical pesticides have led to the extinsive efforts to reduce the use of insecticides against pests and to develop alternative control methods. In this regard, biological control is the leading alternative. The most common natural enemies of cut flower pests such as parasite, parasitoid and predator are insects, mites, bacteria, fungi and nematodes. Cut flowers are produced in many countries such as Kenya, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Italy, Spain and Israel, but the Netherlands and Colombia are considered the world leaders in cut flower production. In the production of many cut flower species, especially cut roses and chrysanthemums, biological control method against pests is applied in some of these countries and it is expected that this method will become more widespread in the future. This article generally focuses on the insects and mites used in biological control of cut flower pests and includes the principles of biological control, its advantages as well as other important issues related to it. © 2019 International Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved.