Control options of Sirex noctilio: a review. (Hymenoptera - Siricidae)

Abstract

Sirex noctilio Fabricius, a woodwasp, represents today a serious potential pest for the main forest resource in Chile: Pinus radiata, D. Don. Specially vulnerable to the pest are the extensive monoespecific plantations in marginal sites, in edaphoclimates zones of high risk and in places where the lack of silvicultural management makes an opening for the establishing of Sirex. This is of special concern since an introduced species without natural enemies rapidly increases its density and dispersion rates.
This is a review of the principal control measures adopted by Australia and New Zealand, with more than 50 years of research in Sirex. Two kinds of measures have been used and some of them evaluated: Preventives which consider legal and silvicultural practices, and Curatives, which comprises biological control with parasites andparasitoids or integrated control with trap tree techniques and specific bioregulatoring agents.
The Chilean forestry sector is now compiling within the Forest Sanitary Committee (Sub-commission Sirex) all the basic biological and technological knowledges about this pest. This review is a contribution to this objective.