Local researchers fighting pests in organic lettuce
Eduardo Morales
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA) – On Tuesday’s Home Grown report, we share how researchers at the University of Arizona are creating new ways to defend one of Yuma’s most important winter vegetables.
The researchers are using the plant alyssum to help fight thrips in organic lettuce. Thrips are insects that spread a dangerous disease into the winter vegetables.
Since organic farming is strict on chemical sprays, researchers needed a non-toxic way to combat the insects.
“What I’m really trying to do is have thrips be attracted to the sweet alyssum and try to pull them out of the organic lettuce, because we are limited on the tools we can use on organic IPM as far as chemistries,” says Macey Keith, a U of A Cooperative Extension Assistant.
The plan is for the thrips to be attracted to a trailer full of the alyssum.
The project used one trailer the previous year, and will now begin to try it with three.