Results and Conclusion

Surveys were performed on a range of natural enemy in Europe and Chile. 3 companies obtained DNA barcodes for their biological control agent (BCA) and uncertainties about taxonomic identifications could be clarified.

New production methods drastically decreasing costs could be set for 3 BCA. Experiments revealed contrasted impacts of inbreeding on BCA (several species of Coccinellidae, Chrysopidae, Miridae, Encyrtidae) or paved the way for selection program aiming at improving BCA field-efficiency (e.g Trichogramma).

Field evaluations were carried out with 8 biocontrol products. Contrasted results were obtained, ranging from no detection of short-term impacts to significant decrease of pest populations or increase of natural enemy populations.

Finally, one team worked on the improvement of pest-monitoring service developed in Chile. User-friendly interfaces and tools for data inputs and outputs were developed and predictive functions based on monitoring data were integrated to the system.