Manejo de Neohydatothrips signifer Priesner (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) en maracuyá (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa Degener) en el departamento del Huila (Colombia)

Thrips are the main pest of the yellow passion fruit, with a potential of up to 95% damage in vegetative terminals. conventional management for this pest is focused on the use of chemical insecticides, restricting export of the fruit. This research looked at a model of integrated pest management (IPM) for thrips in cultivated passion fruit on three farms in the municipality of La Plata (Huila). There were two plots; one, the IPM model with releases of Chrysoperla externa (30,000 larvae/ha), application ofplant extracts garlic + chili pepper + onion and chemical insecticides according to an action threshold; and the other, with the traditional management of the region. The strategies were evaluated and compared at the technical, environmental and economic levels. Earlier semi-confined studies showed that a field release of C.externa (30,000 larvae/ha) controlled 75.05% of the adult thrips and the mixture (2%) of the plant extracts (garlic + chili pepper + onion) 10% each controlled over 64 ± 5.4%of adults thrips.The population density of N. signifer showed significant differences between IPM (3.61 ±0.402) and the conventional (4.55 ± 0.504); the incidence of injury was not significantly different between the managements. Environmentally, the number of applications per month had significant differences between IPM (1.04 ± 0.22) and conventional (3.33 ± 0.22), this would decrease the potential negative effect on the environment. The economic factor was based on production costs and the cost/benefit ratio, which did not differ significantly between IPM and conventional.