초록 열기/닫기 버튼
Thrips are among the most important pests of asparagus. The most effective method to control this pest is to regularly apply insecticides. A total of 152 pesticides have been registered for the control of asparagus pests. However, asparagus are harvested on a daily basis, and the application of insecticides to control thrips during harvest season is not ideal due to the residual effect of the insecticide used. In this study, the efficacy of dish detergent was tested against onion thrips, a major pest of fresh asparagus in Gangwon province, South Korea. The detergent treatment showed that 82% and 93% of onion thrips were controlled (i.e., were either killed or expelled from the spear) by the detergent treatment at both low temperature (4°C) and room temperature (22°C), compared to 30.2% and 52.5% by the control water treatment, respectively. Nonetheless, though detergent can be used to control thrips in asparagus, approximately 8 dead thrips remained in the asparagus spear heads. Thus, thorough washing using water with high pressure is recommended to remove dead thrips from the asparagus spear heads.
