Land-Use Effect on Olive Groves Pest Prays oleae and on Its Potential Biocontrol Agent Chrysoperla carnea

To rethink the counterproductive effects of the recurrent use of pesticides to control
pests, we examine how a conservation biological control approach can promote the necessary
conditions for the development of a natural enemy (Chrysoperla carnea) that controls olive moth pest
(Prays oleae) in 25 olive groves of the Portuguese Beira Interior region. Our study has the distinctive
peculiarity of joining varied technical approaches, since the databases contained information related
to the abundance records of both insect populations, the record of olive fruits infestation by the pest,
and the information obtained after a geospatial analysis that resulted in landscape metrics. Overall,
we corroborated the attraction of C. carnea to the olive moth, highlighted the possible biocontrol
potential of C. carnea on this pest, asserted that the promotion of the diversity of land-uses has a
significant effect in reducing the abundance of pest, and confirmed that landscapes dominated by
olive groves promote the development of P. oleae. The implication of these results is of extreme importance
for olive growers since promoting land-uses complexity and heterogeneity surrounding
olive groves can reduce the likelihood of suffering pest outbreaks and help to avoid associated economic
and environmental problems.