Agro+ television channel in Brazil showcases ISCA’s areawide pheromone technologies

Marcelo Dias and Daniela Ramalho, reporters of Agro+, an agribusiness news channel of the Brazilian TV Bandeirantes, tonight interviewed Dr. Agenor Mafra-Neto, the CEO of ISCA Inc.

The conversation focused on Argentina’s Mendoza state, the fifth-largest wine-growing area of the world and the first in LATAM, where they just finished an areawide campaign to control the destructive grapevine moth, Lobesia botrana, using ISCA’s innovative SPLAT Lobesia technology.  Aerial application of ISCA’s SPLAT Lobesia with planes and drones effectively protected Mendoza’s vineyards from ruin by promoting disruption of mate finding of this invasive moth species.  

“Entire valleys of tens of thousands of hectares of grapes were protected for an entire season by a single aerial application of SPLAT Lobesia,” Mafra-Neto said. “This is the culmination of years of collaborative and work ISCA and ISCAMEN, Aerotec, and ATGC.”

They also discussed ISCA’s attract-and-kill technologies that use semiochemicals found in nature to attract the pest species to points with phagostimulants and insecticides to protect row crops in Brazil.

“Instead of cover spraying insecticide on the crop to reach the pest, we bring the pest to the formulation, allowing us to protect the entire crop while spraying less than 1% of the area,” Mafra-Neto said.

“My gratitude goes to all the talented, experienced, innovative, disciplined, and dedicated people that are helping ISCA make pest control safer, more efficacious, and economical,” Mafra-Neto said.