The natural protection against pests

The natural protection against pests

They may be tiny, but they’re very dangerous. Thunderflies, psylloidea (leaf fleas) and spider mites can make citrus trees very ill. And these are only three of many pest species. To ensure that the tiny animals do not harm the citrus trees on our South African Roihoogte farm, we first make sure that our trees grow healthy, strong and resistant. With the right pruning you get plenty of light and air and thanks to the resource-saving droplet irrigation, you get sufficient water.
But caution is the mother of wisdom. A team of 12 pest experts takes care of our trees so that no malicious tiny creatures or plant diseases spread on our plantations.
Of course, the specialists cannot examine every tree on our large farm individually. For this reason, 5 trees are always marked on 1 to 1.5 hectare sections. These are the so-called reference trees. Once a week, the experts take a close look at these trees. They control the branches, the leaves and of course, the fruit. They look for pests, but also for bacterial, viral or fungal diseases such as mildew. The earlier they detect pests or diseases on the reference trees, the more effectively they can protect the entire plantation. For this reason, they also record their observations during each inspection round.And if the pests on our Roihoogte farm should actually gain the upper hand, our specialists have two secret weapons ready – beneficial organisms and scent traps! Natural predators can then populate our citrus trees and exterminate the pests.
A beautiful win-win situation – for the beneficial insects and nature!

And our scent traps use species-specific, female pheromones to ensure that male insects fall for them. This, of course, is bad for the insect offspring and the whole population, but good for our trees and nature!

We at SanLucar are very grateful that these 12 experts have declared war on thunderflies, leaf fleas and spider mites, especially by natural means.

 

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