0:00:00.500,0:00:02.499
I'm a bug lover, myself --

0:00:02.523,0:00:04.276
not from childhood, by the way,

0:00:04.300,0:00:05.870
but rather late.

0:00:06.897,0:00:08.276
When I bachelored,

0:00:08.300,0:00:10.993
majoring in zoology[br]at Tel Aviv University,

0:00:11.017,0:00:13.154
I kind of fell in love with bugs.

0:00:13.178,0:00:14.916
And then, within zoology,

0:00:14.940,0:00:18.080
I took the course[br]or the discipline of entomology,

0:00:18.104,0:00:20.355
the science of insects.

0:00:20.744,0:00:23.942
And then I thought to myself,[br]how can I be practical

0:00:23.966,0:00:26.942
or help in the science of entomology?

0:00:27.300,0:00:30.533
And then I moved to the world[br]of plant protection --

0:00:30.557,0:00:33.059
plant protection from insects,

0:00:33.083,0:00:34.897
from bad bugs.

0:00:34.921,0:00:37.276
And then within plant protection,

0:00:37.300,0:00:41.561
I came into the discipline[br]of biological pest control,

0:00:41.585,0:00:43.275
which we actually define

0:00:43.299,0:00:46.276
as the use of living organisms

0:00:46.300,0:00:50.800
to reduce populations[br]of noxious plant pests.

0:00:50.824,0:00:53.926
So it's a whole discipline[br]in plant protection

0:00:53.950,0:00:57.407
aimed at the reduction of chemicals.

0:00:58.196,0:01:00.242
And biological pest control, by the way,

0:01:00.266,0:01:03.034
or these "good bugs"[br]that we are talking about,

0:01:03.058,0:01:06.890
they've existed in the world[br]for thousands and thousands of years,

0:01:06.914,0:01:08.517
for a long, long time.

0:01:08.541,0:01:12.123
But only in the last 120 years,

0:01:12.228,0:01:15.618
people started, or people[br]knew more and more

0:01:15.642,0:01:20.028
how to exploit, or how to use,[br]this biological control phenomenon,

0:01:20.052,0:01:23.432
or in fact, natural control phenomenon,

0:01:23.456,0:01:25.694
for their own needs.

0:01:26.180,0:01:29.788
Because biological control phenomenon --[br]you can see it in your backyard.

0:01:29.812,0:01:32.768
Just take a magnifying glass.[br]You see what I have here?

0:01:32.792,0:01:36.806
That's a magnifier, times 10.

0:01:36.830,0:01:39.828
You just open it, twist leaves,

0:01:39.852,0:01:43.276
and you see a whole new world[br]of minute insects,

0:01:43.300,0:01:48.276
or little spiders of one millimeter,[br]one-and-a-half, two millimeters long,

0:01:48.300,0:01:51.300
and you can distinguish[br]between the good ones and the bad ones.

0:01:51.324,0:01:55.864
So this phenomenon of natural control[br]exists literally everywhere.

0:01:55.888,0:01:57.942
Here, in front of this building, I'm sure.

0:01:57.966,0:01:59.488
Just have a look at the plants.

0:01:59.905,0:02:03.566
So it's everywhere,[br]and we need to know how to exploit it.

0:02:04.069,0:02:06.046
Well, let's go hand by hand

0:02:06.070,0:02:09.276
and browse through just a few examples.

0:02:09.300,0:02:10.815
What is a pest?

0:02:10.839,0:02:14.149
What damage does it actually[br]inflict on the plant?

0:02:14.173,0:02:16.434
And what is the natural enemy,

0:02:16.458,0:02:19.441
the biological control agent,[br]or the "good bug"

0:02:19.465,0:02:20.666
that we're talking about?

0:02:20.690,0:02:25.703
In general, I'm going to talk[br]about insects and spiders,

0:02:25.727,0:02:27.950
or mites, let us call them.

0:02:27.974,0:02:30.743
Insects, those six-legged organisms

0:02:30.767,0:02:34.845
and spiders or mites,[br]the eight-legged organisms.

0:02:34.869,0:02:36.276
Let's have a look at that.

0:02:36.300,0:02:39.528
Here is a devastating pest, a spider mite,

0:02:39.552,0:02:42.424
because it does a lot[br]of webbing, like a spider.

0:02:42.800,0:02:44.322
You see the mother in between,

0:02:44.346,0:02:46.756
and two daughters, probably,[br]on the left and right,

0:02:46.780,0:02:48.848
and a single egg on the right-hand side.

0:02:48.872,0:02:51.360
And then you see[br]what kind of damage it can inflict.

0:02:51.384,0:02:53.926
On your right-hand side,[br]you can see a cucumber leaf,

0:02:53.950,0:02:55.391
in the middle, a cotton leaf,

0:02:55.415,0:02:58.613
and on the left, a tomato leaf[br]with these little stipplings.

0:02:58.637,0:03:01.690
They can literally turn[br]from green to white,

0:03:01.714,0:03:07.276
because of the sucking, piercing[br]mouth parts of those spiders.

0:03:07.758,0:03:11.428
But here comes nature,[br]that provides us with a good spider.

0:03:11.452,0:03:14.834
This is a predatory mite --[br]just as small as a spider mite;

0:03:14.858,0:03:17.662
one, two millimeters long,[br]not more than that --

0:03:17.686,0:03:22.100
running quickly, hunting,[br]chasing the spider mites.

0:03:22.124,0:03:25.992
And here, you can see this lady[br]in action on your left-hand side --

0:03:26.016,0:03:31.642
just pierces, sucks the body fluids[br]on the left-hand side of the pest mite.

0:03:31.666,0:03:34.276
And after five minutes,[br]this is what you see:

0:03:34.300,0:03:36.619
just a typical dead corpse --

0:03:36.643,0:03:40.276
the shriveled, sucked-out,[br]dead corpse of the spider mite,

0:03:40.300,0:03:45.164
and next to it, two satiated[br]individuals, predatory mites,

0:03:45.188,0:03:48.685
a mother on the left-hand side,[br]a young nymph on the right-hand side.

0:03:48.709,0:03:51.631
By the way, a meal for them for 24 hours,

0:03:51.655,0:03:55.905
is about five of the spider mites,[br]of the bad mites,

0:03:55.929,0:04:00.814
and-or 15 to 20 eggs of the pest mites.

0:04:00.838,0:04:03.276
By the way, they are always hungry.

0:04:03.300,0:04:05.539
(Laughter)

0:04:05.563,0:04:07.870
And here is another example: aphids.

0:04:07.894,0:04:09.748
It's springtime now in Israel.

0:04:09.772,0:04:12.277
When temperatures rise sharply,

0:04:12.301,0:04:15.574
you can see those bad ones,[br]those aphids, all over the plants --

0:04:15.598,0:04:18.276
in your hibiscus, in your lantana,

0:04:18.300,0:04:22.276
in the young, fresh foliage[br]of the so-called spring flush.

0:04:22.300,0:04:26.276
By the way, with aphids you have[br]only females, like Amazons.

0:04:26.300,0:04:29.725
Females giving rise to females,[br]giving rise to other females.

0:04:29.749,0:04:30.978
No males at all.

0:04:31.002,0:04:33.438
Parthenogenesis, as it's so called.

0:04:33.462,0:04:35.577
And they're very happy[br]with that, apparently.

0:04:35.601,0:04:36.626
(Laughter)

0:04:36.650,0:04:38.276
Here we can see the damage.

0:04:38.300,0:04:45.060
Those aphids secrete a sticky,[br]sugary liquid called honeydew,

0:04:45.084,0:04:49.103
and this just clogs[br]the upper parts of the plant.

0:04:49.127,0:04:52.840
Here you see a typical cucumber leaf[br]that turned from green to black

0:04:52.864,0:04:57.583
because of a black fungus, sooty mold,[br]which is covering it.

0:04:57.607,0:05:02.935
And here comes the salvation,[br]through this parasitic wasp.

0:05:02.959,0:05:05.061
Here we are not talking about a predator.

0:05:05.085,0:05:07.549
Here we are talking a parasite --

0:05:07.573,0:05:09.446
not a two-legged parasite,

0:05:09.470,0:05:12.479
but an eight-legged parasite, of course.

0:05:12.503,0:05:14.277
This is a parasitic wasp,

0:05:14.301,0:05:20.056
again, two millimeters long, slender,[br]a very quick and sharp flier.

0:05:20.080,0:05:22.864
And here you can see[br]this parasite in action,

0:05:22.888,0:05:25.555
like in an acrobatic maneuver.

0:05:25.579,0:05:27.276
She stands vis-à-vis

0:05:27.300,0:05:29.627
in front of the victim[br]at the right-hand side,

0:05:29.651,0:05:34.825
bending its abdomen[br]and inserting a single egg

0:05:34.849,0:05:36.956
into the body fluids of the aphid.

0:05:37.638,0:05:39.795
By the way, the aphid tries to escape.

0:05:39.819,0:05:44.078
She kicks and bites[br]and secretes different liquids,

0:05:44.102,0:05:46.152
but nothing will happen, in fact --

0:05:46.176,0:05:49.586
only the egg of the parasitoid[br]will be inserted

0:05:49.610,0:05:51.748
into the body fluids of the aphid.

0:05:51.772,0:05:54.708
And after a few days,[br]depending upon temperature,

0:05:54.732,0:05:56.149
the egg will hatch

0:05:56.173,0:06:01.144
and the larva of this parasite[br]will eat the aphid from the inside.

0:06:01.168,0:06:02.219
(Laughter)

0:06:02.243,0:06:04.487
This is all natural. This is all natural.

0:06:04.511,0:06:06.510
This is not fiction, nothing at all.

0:06:06.534,0:06:09.485
Again -- in your backyard.[br]In your backyard.

0:06:09.509,0:06:11.014
(Laughter)

0:06:11.038,0:06:12.503
(Applause)

0:06:12.527,0:06:18.984
But this is the end result: mummies.

0:06:19.094,0:06:24.276
This is the visual result[br]of a dead aphid encompassing inside,

0:06:24.300,0:06:30.195
a developing parasitoid that,[br]after a few minutes, you see halfway out.

0:06:30.219,0:06:32.425
The birth is almost complete.

0:06:32.449,0:06:35.623
You can see, by the way,[br]in different movies, etc.,

0:06:35.647,0:06:37.276
it takes just a few minutes.

0:06:37.300,0:06:40.802
And if this is a female,[br]she'll immediately mate with a male

0:06:40.826,0:06:43.662
and off she goes,[br]because time is very short.

0:06:43.686,0:06:46.276
This female can live[br]only three to four days,

0:06:46.300,0:06:50.162
and she needs to give rise[br]to around 400 eggs.

0:06:50.186,0:06:53.588
That means she has 400 bad aphids

0:06:53.612,0:06:56.593
to put her eggs into their body fluids.

0:06:57.204,0:06:59.180
This is, of course, not the end of it.

0:06:59.204,0:07:01.586
There is a whole wealth[br]of other natural enemies

0:07:01.610,0:07:03.276
and this is just the last example.

0:07:03.300,0:07:05.793
Again, we'll start first with the pest:

0:07:05.817,0:07:07.276
the thrips.

0:07:07.300,0:07:09.603
By the way, all these weird names --

0:07:09.627,0:07:13.126
I didn't bother you with the Latin[br]names of these creatures,

0:07:13.150,0:07:14.390
just the popular names.

0:07:14.414,0:07:18.526
But this is a nice,[br]slender, very bad pest.

0:07:18.550,0:07:20.898
If you can see this: sweet peppers.

0:07:20.922,0:07:23.921
This is not just an exotic,[br]ornamental sweet pepper.

0:07:23.945,0:07:26.492
This is a sweet pepper[br]which is not consumable

0:07:26.516,0:07:29.276
because it is suffering[br]from a viral disease

0:07:29.300,0:07:32.465
transmitted by those thrip adults.

0:07:32.910,0:07:36.427
And here comes the natural enemy,[br]minute pirate bug --

0:07:36.451,0:07:39.030
"minute," because it is rather small.

0:07:39.054,0:07:42.473
Here you can see the adult,[br]black, and two young ones.

0:07:42.497,0:07:44.042
And again, in action.

0:07:44.066,0:07:46.877
This adult pierces the thrips,

0:07:47.614,0:07:49.860
sucking it within just several minutes,

0:07:49.884,0:07:53.114
going to the other prey,[br]continuing all over the place.

0:07:53.138,0:07:57.433
And if we spread those minute[br]pirate bugs, the good ones,

0:07:57.457,0:08:00.353
for example, in a sweet pepper plot,

0:08:00.377,0:08:01.946
they go to the flowers.

0:08:01.970,0:08:07.054
And look -- this flower is flooded[br]with predatory bugs, with the good ones,

0:08:07.078,0:08:10.276
after wiping out the bad ones, the thrips.

0:08:10.300,0:08:12.884
So this is a very positive situation.

0:08:12.908,0:08:16.208
No harm to the developing fruit.[br]No harm to the fruit set.

0:08:16.232,0:08:19.296
Everything is just fine[br]under these circumstances.

0:08:20.045,0:08:21.506
But again, the question is,

0:08:21.530,0:08:25.731
here you saw them on a one-to-one basis --[br]the pest, the natural enemy.

0:08:26.097,0:08:29.068
What we do is actually this.

0:08:29.544,0:08:32.973
In Northeast Israel,[br]in Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu,

0:08:32.997,0:08:37.366
there is a facility that mass-produces[br]those natural enemies.

0:08:37.711,0:08:44.189
In other words, what we do there[br]is amplify the natural control,

0:08:44.213,0:08:46.190
or the biological control phenomenon.

0:08:46.214,0:08:51.091
And in 30,000 square meters[br]of state-of-the-art greenhouses,

0:08:51.115,0:08:54.419
there, we are mass-producing[br]those predatory mites,

0:08:54.443,0:08:56.138
those minute pirate bugs,

0:08:56.162,0:08:59.058
those parasitic wasps, etc.

0:08:59.082,0:09:00.409
Many different parts.

0:09:00.433,0:09:02.689
By the way, they have[br]a very nice landscape --

0:09:02.713,0:09:05.089
you see the Jordanian Mountains[br]on the one hand,

0:09:05.113,0:09:07.090
and the Jordan Valley on the other hand,

0:09:07.114,0:09:11.167
and a good, mild winter[br]and a nice, hot summer,

0:09:11.191,0:09:15.186
which is an excellent condition[br]to mass-produce those creatures.

0:09:15.210,0:09:19.450
And by the way, mass-production --[br]it is not genetic manipulation.

0:09:19.474,0:09:23.521
There are no GMOs -- genetically[br]modified organisms -- whatsoever.

0:09:23.545,0:09:25.276
We take them from nature,

0:09:25.300,0:09:29.597
and the only thing that we do[br]is give them the optimal conditions,

0:09:29.621,0:09:32.276
under the greenhouses[br]or in the climate rooms,

0:09:32.300,0:09:35.717
in order to proliferate,[br]multiply and reproduce.

0:09:36.367,0:09:38.058
And that's what we get.

0:09:38.082,0:09:39.939
You see under a microscope.

0:09:39.963,0:09:43.107
You see in the upper left corner?[br]You see a single predatory mite.

0:09:43.131,0:09:46.526
And this is the whole bunch[br]of predatory mites.

0:09:46.550,0:09:48.870
You see this ampul. You see this one.

0:09:48.894,0:09:52.070
I have one gram of those predatory mites.

0:09:52.391,0:09:55.939
One gram is 80,000 individuals.

0:09:56.503,0:10:02.089
80,000 individuals are good enough[br]to control one acre,

0:10:02.113,0:10:03.951
4,000 square meters,

0:10:03.975,0:10:05.828
of a strawberry plot

0:10:05.852,0:10:08.781
against spider mites for the whole season

0:10:08.805,0:10:10.218
of almost one year.

0:10:10.982,0:10:14.530
And we can produce[br]from this, believe you me,

0:10:14.554,0:10:18.956
several dozens of kilograms[br]on an annual basis.

0:10:18.980,0:10:23.188
So this is what I call[br]amplification of the phenomenon.

0:10:23.212,0:10:27.011
And no, we do not disrupt the balance.

0:10:27.035,0:10:28.276
On the contrary,

0:10:28.300,0:10:31.183
because we bring it to every cultural plot

0:10:31.207,0:10:33.960
where the balance was already disrupted

0:10:33.984,0:10:35.276
by the chemicals.

0:10:35.300,0:10:37.177
Here we come with those natural enemies

0:10:37.201,0:10:40.108
in order to reverse[br]a little bit of the wheel

0:10:40.132,0:10:44.114
and to bring more natural balance[br]to the agricultural plot

0:10:44.138,0:10:45.979
by reducing those chemicals.

0:10:46.003,0:10:47.558
That's the whole idea.

0:10:47.582,0:10:49.020
And what is the impact?

0:10:49.044,0:10:52.276
In this table, you can[br]actually see what is an impact

0:10:52.300,0:10:56.028
of a successful biological[br]control by good bugs.

0:10:56.648,0:11:03.017
For example, in Israel, where we employ[br]more than 1,000 hectares --

0:11:03.041,0:11:05.716
10,000 dunams in Israeli terms --

0:11:05.740,0:11:08.365
of biological pests[br]controlling sweet pepper

0:11:08.389,0:11:09.913
under protection,

0:11:09.937,0:11:13.592
75 percent of the pesticides[br]were actually reduced.

0:11:13.616,0:11:16.101
And Israeli strawberries, even more --

0:11:16.125,0:11:17.899
80 percent of the pesticides,

0:11:17.923,0:11:22.491
especially those aimed[br]against pest mites in strawberries.

0:11:22.846,0:11:24.722
So the impact is very strong.

0:11:25.984,0:11:28.132
And there goes the question,

0:11:28.156,0:11:31.133
especially if you ask[br]growers, agriculturists:

0:11:31.157,0:11:32.850
Why biological control?

0:11:32.874,0:11:34.652
Why good bugs?

0:11:34.676,0:11:37.442
By the way, the number of answers you get

0:11:37.466,0:11:39.597
equals the number of people you ask.

0:11:41.054,0:11:45.612
But if we go, for example,[br]to this place, Southeast Israel,

0:11:45.636,0:11:49.112
the Arava area[br]above the Great Rift Valley,

0:11:49.136,0:11:54.181
where the pearl of Israeli[br]agriculture is located,

0:11:54.205,0:11:57.798
especially under greenhouse conditions,[br]or under screenhouse conditions --

0:11:57.822,0:12:00.611
if you drive all the way[br]to Eilat, you see this

0:12:00.635,0:12:02.548
just in the middle of the desert.

0:12:02.572,0:12:04.081
And if you zoom in,

0:12:04.105,0:12:05.808
you can definitely watch this:

0:12:06.196,0:12:08.383
grandparents with their grandchildren,

0:12:08.407,0:12:11.276
distributing the natural[br]enemies, the good bugs,

0:12:11.300,0:12:13.673
instead of wearing special clothes

0:12:13.697,0:12:15.897
and gas masks and applying chemicals.

0:12:16.485,0:12:19.071
So safety, with respect[br]to the application,

0:12:19.095,0:12:22.514
is the number one answer[br]that we get from growers,

0:12:22.538,0:12:24.511
for "Why biological control?"

0:12:25.689,0:12:29.659
Number two, many growers[br]are, in fact, petrified

0:12:29.683,0:12:32.866
by the idea of resistance,

0:12:32.890,0:12:37.443
that the pests will become[br]resistant to the chemicals,

0:12:37.467,0:12:41.276
just like in our case, that bacteria[br]becomes resistant to antibiotics.

0:12:41.300,0:12:44.068
It's the same, and it can[br]happen very quickly.

0:12:44.908,0:12:49.276
Fortunately, in either biological control[br]or even natural control,

0:12:49.300,0:12:52.361
resistance is extremely rare.

0:12:52.940,0:12:54.489
It hardly happens.

0:12:54.513,0:12:57.865
Because this is evolution,[br]this is the natural ratio,

0:12:57.889,0:13:01.743
unlike resistance, which happens[br]in the case of chemicals.

0:13:01.767,0:13:04.743
And thirdly, public demand.

0:13:05.236,0:13:10.040
The more the public demands[br]the reduction of chemicals,

0:13:10.064,0:13:13.909
the more growers become aware of the fact

0:13:13.933,0:13:16.675
that they should, wherever they can[br]and wherever possible,

0:13:16.699,0:13:20.630
replace the chemical control[br]with biological control.

0:13:20.734,0:13:22.796
Even here, there is another grower,

0:13:22.820,0:13:26.547
you see, very interested in the bugs,[br]the bad ones and the good ones,

0:13:26.571,0:13:28.766
wearing this magnifier[br]already on her head,

0:13:28.790,0:13:31.199
just walking safely in her crop.

0:13:31.867,0:13:35.127
Finally, I want to get to my vision,

0:13:35.151,0:13:37.103
or, in fact, to my dream.

0:13:37.611,0:13:39.634
Because, you see, this is the reality.

0:13:39.658,0:13:41.134
Have a look at the gap.

0:13:41.158,0:13:43.276
If we take the overall turnover

0:13:43.300,0:13:45.745
of the biocontrol industry worldwide,

0:13:45.769,0:13:47.643
it's 250 million dollars.

0:13:48.762,0:13:51.856
And look at the overall pesticide industry

0:13:51.880,0:13:53.734
in all the crops throughout the world.

0:13:54.077,0:13:56.948
I think it's times 100[br]or something like that.

0:13:56.972,0:13:58.678
Twenty-five billion.

0:13:58.702,0:14:01.317
So there is a huge gap to bridge.

0:14:02.300,0:14:03.964
So actually, how can we do it?

0:14:03.988,0:14:08.868
How can we bridge, or let's say,[br]narrow, this gap over the years?

0:14:08.892,0:14:12.640
First of all, we need to find more robust,

0:14:12.664,0:14:15.276
good and reliable biological solutions,

0:14:15.300,0:14:19.923
more good bugs that we can[br]either mass-produce

0:14:19.947,0:14:22.451
or actually conserve in the field.

0:14:23.013,0:14:27.599
Secondly, to create even more intensive[br]and strict public demand

0:14:27.623,0:14:30.875
for the reduction of chemicals[br]in agricultural fresh produce.

0:14:31.716,0:14:35.474
And thirdly, also to increase[br]awareness by the growers

0:14:35.498,0:14:37.649
to the potential of this industry.

0:14:38.300,0:14:40.799
And this gap really narrows.

0:14:40.823,0:14:43.438
Step by step, it does narrow.

0:14:44.557,0:14:46.762
So I think my last slide is:

0:14:46.786,0:14:49.051
All we are saying --[br]we can actually sing it --

0:14:49.075,0:14:50.869
Give nature a chance.

0:14:50.893,0:14:54.059
I'm saying it on behalf[br]of all the biocontrol practitioners

0:14:54.083,0:14:55.397
and implementers,

0:14:55.421,0:14:57.642
in Israel and abroad,

0:14:57.666,0:14:59.698
really give nature a chance.

0:14:59.722,0:15:00.881
Thank you.

0:15:00.905,0:15:02.976
(Applause)