Every week, millions of flies are released on the Valencia Community and, although it does not seem like it, it is a sensational idea

The Valencia war against the Mediterranean fruit fly dates back more than thirty years and is A constant reminder That going to war against an insect is never easy.

It is not a reminder that is needed, the truth. Hundreds of regions around the world fight their particular conflicts with All kinds of insects, fungi or bacteria. If Valencia is important, it is something else.

For a factory in caudete of the sources.

An army of flies. Since at least 2017, the one we know today as Valencian Center for Genetic Fight It has been releasing hundreds of millions of flies weekly to combat pests. The technique is not new, but in this Valencian municipality they have led it to its maximum expression.

Not for nothing is the largest bioplant in Europe and the second largest in the world: a reference in what is called “sterile insect technique”.

Sterile insect? Yes, it is “a method of biological pest control that is based on raising males of the same species to fight that they are sterilized by irradiation.” These sterile males They are released to the fieldwhere they compete with wild males due to mating with females, “reducing plague levels by not giving rise to offspring.”

Is a solution that “has been used in agriculture of multiple countries and in various flies and beetles. In addition, it is studied to fight against mosquitoes, in particular the Aedes“vectors of diseases such as dengue and chikungunya.”

And is it viable? According to the Valencian example, it seems that. Although the regional government Spend about eight million Of euros a year, it has become a key piece in the defense of a sector that moves more than 10,000 million only in the region. As explained in the country: “In recent years there has been a very pronounced decrease in hectares of citrus treated with chemicals through aerial media (from about 330,000 at the beginning of the 21st century to just a few thousands of hectares today).”

That is, it is a relatively cheap and quite effective project that also allows Very specific interventions And safe: “Since sterile males generally only appear with females of their own species, little effect on ecosystems is expected, unlike insecticides, which are toxic to many different species.”

An increasingly present future. A few years ago, Manuel F. HerradorProfessor of the UDC Civil Engineering School, he said that in the future, they will be horrified how much of our way of building was summed up in two words: brute force. Something like this will happen when technology historians look at how we cultivate during the 20th century.

Now, little by little, we are recovering (and creating) other ways to intervene in the nature much more intelligent, powerful and effective. Font caudete is just the beginning.

Image | AlvesGaspar | THAT

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