Skip to main content
Entomology 2023 Main banner
Bayer
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
In-Person
In-Person
On-Demand
On-Demand
Student Competition
Student Competition
Poster
Poster
Ticketed Event
Ticketed Event
Back
ViewAttendees 2

10-Minute Paper

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

P-IE: Biological Control 2

Pilot testing of an Area-Wide biological control strategy of the coffee berry borer in Colombia using African parasitoids

Wednesday, November 8, 2023
9:36 AM – 9:48 AM ET
Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Maryland D
In-Person

    Presenting Author(s)

  • PB

    Pablo Benavides

    Research Scientist
    Colombian Coffee Growers Federation
    Manizales, Caldas, Colombia

    • Co-Author(s)

  • ZG

    Zulma Gil

    Research Scientist
    Colombian Coffee Growers Federation
    Manizales, Caldas, Colombia

  • LE

    Luis Escobar

    Research Assistant
    Colombian Coffee Growers Federation
    Manizales, Caldas, Colombia

  • LN

    Lucio Navarro

    Purdue University
    West Lafayette, Indiana

  • PF

    Peter Follet

    Research Entomologist
    USDA
    Hilo, Hawaii

  • HD

    Hilda Diaz

    USDA
    San Juan, Puerto Rico

Coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) native to Africa, is the most serious insect pest of coffee globally. H. hampei has invaded many new coffee production areas without its natural enemies. Two African parasitoids, Prorops nasuta (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) and Phymastichus coffea (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), were mass reared for field release against H. hampei in Manizales, Colombia. On a 70-hectare coffee farm, releases of more than 2 million wasps of each species resulted in parasitism rates of up to 7,7% for P. nasuta and 56,3 % for P. coffea; so for, this led to a maximum reduction in H. hampei field populations in dispersion patches (old coffee) of 81% and 64,3% in colonization patches (new coffee) within this farm. At the end, this Area-wide strategy ended with a decrease on infested coffee berries in colonization patches between 51.1% and 77.5% compared to coffee plots with no African parasitoid releases.