Unofficial reports suggest that Tuta absoluta is advancing further east beyond Italy on the European cost and beyond Tunisia on the North African side of the Mediterranean.
Due to the seriousness of this pest and its impact on the future of Tomato production in the Mediterranean, Russell IPM Ltd is offering free pheromone detection kits to Universities and Agricultural research centres to assist in the early recording of this pest in any of the countries listed below and to encourage drawing up an early plans for the management of this new invasive pest.
Eligible research groups from Albania, Greece, former Yugoslavia states, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon , Israel, Egypt, Libya, Cyprus, and Malta may request the free kits directly from Dr Shakir Al-Zaidi, Russell IPM Ltd, info@russellipm.com
Tuta absoluta is a serious and invasive pest for Tomato. After devastating tomato production in South America, it was introduced accidently to Spain in 2006. Since then it has spread rapidly to main tomato production in Spain, France, Italy, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
The problems associated with this pest beside its population rapid growth and spread, its ability to develop resistance to insecticieds within few generations.
The Mediterranean region produces over 15 Million tons of processing tomato (39% of world production) in addition to large but not identified volume of table tomato. The pest also can attack other major crops like potato, aubergine and beans.
