Feromonas sexuales de los principales lepidópteros que afectan cultivos de la familia cucurbitáceas en el departamento de córdoba, y su potencial uso para el control de plagas

Abstract

For several years there has been a favourable trend towards the consumption of fruits and vegetables, boosting the economy of the countries that produce these foods, which must guarantee good quality products and a sufficient and continuous supply of them. To obtain good products and avoid the loss of their crops due to the attack of pests, farmers have used conventional pesticides for a long time, which are very harmful substances, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), for these reasons it has been necessary seek new strategies to reduce their use or replace them, and more friendly solutions for the environment and for the health of farmers and consumers, and they must be equally effective in pest management; the use of the insects sex pheromones to control insect behaviour being one of them. Colombia is a country that markets a variety of foods nationally and internationally, and must guarantee a good quality of its products. Some of the crops of great agricultural interest in our country belong to the Cucurbitaceae family, which are widely distributed in the national territory. In the Colombian Caribbean region, watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), melon (Cucumis melo), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) and pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) crops are very important for their use as a food source. These crops are exposed to the attack of some insects, such as lepidoptera, and despite the fact that their control has been done predominantly using conventional insecticides, the demands in the new markets encourage the search for new alternatives in our country, which must be friendly to the environment and help reduce the residuality of these pesticides, improve the competitiveness of products and move towards cleaner production. This document compiles some general information about the most interesting cucurbit crops in the department of Cordoba and the Colombian Caribbean region, the main lepidoptera pests that attack these crops and their sex pheromones, as well as the ease of obtaining these compounds. by organic synthesis, and the potential they have to be used in traps that help control these same insects