Portal de Alhama de Murcia
www.portaldealhama.com
The Municipality of Alhama, through the Department of Environment has organized for Thursday February 9, 2012, beginning at 20:00 pm in the hall of the Women's Business Incubator, will develop an informative talk on cochineal carmine (Dactylopius opuntiae).
It is a plague that affects all our traditional paleras or prickly pears.
Who has not seen covered with a tapestry-like snow white?
The beginning of this plague dates from the summer of 2007 when it was found in Murcia for the first time in Spain, a strong attack on the paleras by an insect known as wild cochineal carmine or cochineal.
When the pest is installed on a prickly pear stems covered with a white cottony mass.
Attacks on the Palera are produced by both nymphs and adult females for which nailed a stiletto mouthparts and suck plant fluids.
The attacks are massive and eventually kill the Palera.
Fig production is lost forever.
It feeds exclusively on cactus, mainly of the genus Opuntia (prickly pear paleras or), unable to attack other plants.
Besides the loss of fruit production, males, who are flying and very small, causing nuisance to neighbors, attracted by the light of housing, including through conventional nets.
These are not mosquitoes, so that in no way can bite people.
The red color left on the skin is carminic acid.
Males of cochineal carmine do not eat because they have no mouthparts and do not have any defensive sting like wasps or bees, so its bite is impossible.
Accordingly, cochineal carmine has become a dangerous pest for paleras.
The talk will be given by Diego Gallego Cambronero, Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Murcia and Technical Unit Forest Health.
DG Environment.
A chat can assist all persons who own paleras and the general public who is interested in the subject.
Admission is free.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Alhama de Murcia
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