Biological control of tomato leaf miner (Tuta absoluta Povolny; Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae)

Abstract

Tomato leaf miner (Tuta absoluta) is a major pest on tomatoes worldwide. It can spread very easily with plantings and contaminated packaging, it can attack all aboveground parts of tomato, it is hidden from contact insecticides and has adaptive life-cycle with several secondary host plants. Because of these advantages of the pest, biological control is considered as one of the most efficient methods to control the pest, because natural enemies are active in finding host and they develop with it. According to the researches single products are not as efficient as combinations of biological control agents, biological agents and chemical insecticides, and appropriate phytosanitary measures in greenhouses, monitoring with sex pheromones and mass trapping, if necessary. In Europe, we are looking for indigenous natural enemies that could adapt to the new host and could be therefore used in biological control of tomato leaf miner. We have the same goal in Slovenia, though the damage of T. absoluta still does not have economic impact.