SAG begins release of sterile male fruit fly to control pest
Five million sterile fruit fly males, Ceratitis capitata o Mosca del Mediterráneo, is releasing a week the Agricultural and Livestock Service, SAG, in sectors of the communes of Renca, Quinta Normal and Cerro Navia, work that was supervised today by the Metropolitan Mayor, Karla Rubilar, with the Seremi de Agricultura , José Pedro Guilisasti, the Mayor of Cerro Navia, Mauro Tamayo, and the Director (s) of the Metropolitan SAG, Juan Valenzuela. This technique seeks to support the fight against this plague, one of the most feared in the agricultural sector and which keeps deployed a large contingent of SAG officials working in sectors of these three communes.
At the beginning of February, the SAG began a campaign to fly the fruit after the timely detection of a specimen of this insect in one of the 15.000 traps maintained by the service surveillance system throughout the country, immediately activating an emergency plan to its elimination.
During the supervision, carried out in the vicinity of the free fair Cauquenes de Cerro Navia, the Intendenta Rubilar was able to verify the work that the SAG does in the field, making "a call to the citizens not to enter with prohibited products of animal and vegetable origin to the country, because this outbreak of fly that today we fight in these three communes of the Metropolitan Region is due to the illegal entry of fruit by a border crossing, causing serious damage to the country ".
For his part, the Mayor of Cerro Navia, Mauro Tamayo, asked "the neighbors to collaborate with the SAG by allowing their duly identified officials with their uniform and official credentials to enter their homes. In addition, it is important not to manipulate the bags with sterile fruit flies that will be installed in some trees of the commune, so that they can fulfill their function, and finally, not to move fruit from the fruit trees that they have in their homes to other zones to avoid the dispersal of this insect. This way we will be able to eliminate this plague of our communion as soon as possible ".
In the place was also present the Seremi of Agriculture of the Metropolitan Region, José Pedro Guilisasti, who explained the importance of the SAG begin to apply the Technique of the Sterile Insect in these communes, because "it is a method that gives very good results, is friendly to the environment and is not invasive, because they are flies that do not cause any discomfort or harm to the health of people and pets. "
Within the framework of this campaign, the SAG has already made more than 3.000 revisions to the additional traps that it installed, it has visited more than 9 a thousand properties, in which samples of fruit have been taken, analyzing up to now around 2 tons in his specialized laboratory and downloading almost 7 tons of fresh fruits in the compromised areas.
What is the TIE?
The Sterile Insect Technique is one of the most sustainable ways to combat the fruit fly, because it is a form of biological control, friendly to the environment, which is used in many parts of the world, such as the United States, Australia and Japan, and that in Chile is applied successfully from 1993 in the city of Arica, being a permanent control measure for this pest, since it can be used preventively.
In the framework of the current campaign for fruit fly in Renca, Cerro Navia and Quinta Normal, the SAG is releasing approximately 5 million sterile males twice a week.
To do this, officials of the Agricultural and Livestock Service install in some fruit trees bags of Kraft paper that contain sterile fruit fly pupae inside. There they feed for a few days, they are born, and once mature, they go out into the environment to compete with the wild males. They, when copulating with fertile females, have no offspring thus interrupting the reproduction cycle.
The benefits of using this technique are enormous: the routines of those who live in the sector are not altered, there is no risk to the health of people, plants, or animals, and it is an ecological form of agricultural pest control. Therefore, it is essential that citizens do not manipulate the bags and allow the entry of SAG officials, duly identified, to perform the various tasks related to the campaign against this plague.
How can the neighbors collaborate?
- Not moving fruit produced in homes. The person should consume it at home and not give it to relatives or friends, because if it were infected it would spread the plague.
- Allowing the entry of the SAG officials, duly identified, to their home so that they can perform the necessary control tasks for the eradication of the outbreak.
- Respecting the management and care measures that the SAG officials indicate in each case.
- Not handling the sterile fruit fly release bags.
- Notifying the nearest SAG office if there are doubts or questions regarding the work being done in the area. You can also call the 226764032 phone.
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