"This spring, I'll be the one deciding how long my tomato campaign lasts, and not the 'Tuta'"

In its latest weekly report for the province of Almeria, the RAIF recommends taking extreme preventive measures to keep the Tuta absoluta pest under control in tomato crops, both in Almeria and Granada, due to the fact that captures have been detected in the majority of the greenhouses sampled, and at the moment, the weather conditions "are ideal for their development." For European tomato growers, light is increasingly becoming the option of choice for the effective control of this very voracious pest, capable of causing high crop losses, as well as developing resistance to pesticides.

"In my case, last year I had a Tuta infestation from the moment I started planting tomatoes in October, and if I had taken 15 more days to set up the Biocaptur light device I would have had to pull up the whole plantation before I got a single tomato," says Alberto Díaz, a grower from the largest tomato cooperative in Almería, CASI, specialized in growing RAF type tomatoes.

"This year, I have had the devices on since I started with the planting, and thanks to them, I haven't had any problems with Tuta. The pest is difficult to control because it reproduces very quickly, but Biocaptur captures adult individuals night after night, preventing the populations from spreading and the larvae from damaging the tomatoes."

"For me, it's a very effective solution, and in fact, since I have been using Biocaptur, I could easily switch to organic farming because I don't need to use any chemical products against the Tuta," says Alberto.

"April is one of the months in which, if you decide to grow tomatoes, you are taking a gamble because spring is when Tuta attacks are at their strongest, and you can suffer great losses if something goes wrong with the crop. That is why it's very important to be 100% sure that your time and money will be well invested."

"In my case, if it wasn't for the Biocaptur device, last year I would have had to finish my campaign at the end of March, but this year, once again, I'll be the one deciding how long my tomato campaign lasts, and not any pests," he says.

Like Alberto, David Martínez, another RAF-type tomato grower from CASI, has decided to use Biocaptur to be able to carry out a spring cycle. "Seeing how the machine works, I feel confident about planting tomatoes now in April. My intention is to get it up and running before I even bring in the plants to clear the greenhouse of adult Tuta," he says.

"You can use pesticides to kill the egg or the worm, but not to kill the moth, which is the one that goes through the reproduction cycle. And the only effective method I've seen so far is the use of light."

"LED technology is also useful in open ground crops"
ATG Ingeniería has sold its Tuta absoluta control equipment based on the attracting power of light to growers, cooperatives, and companies all over the world. "At the moment, we are arranging the shipment of a large number of devices to a company in the Netherlands that relies on Biocaptur's patented technology to guarantee the success of its spring and summer tomato crops," says Antonio Tortosa, creator of the device.

"Its effectiveness, in fact, has been observed even in unprotected crops, and we are already running tests to install Biocaptur in open ground fields, where Tuta control is even more necessary, as there is no physical protection barrier to prevent the arrival of the moths.

"The only device for the control of Tuta absoluta with LED lights authorized on the market"
"We are very happy with the success of Biocaptur," says Antonio. "However, precisely because of its success, we feel it necessary to point out that we have already seen an attempt to plagiarize our patented device and technology, which was allegedly going to be marketed in the Netherlands, and we have taken appropriate legal action. It is therefore important to remember that Biocaptur is the only device for the control of Tuta absoluta by means of LED lights authorized on the market, and any other device may represent a fraud for the consumer and infringe intellectual and industrial property laws."