Control Microbiológico para hormiga Arriera (Atta cephalotes)

Microbiological control is a sustainable agriculture strategy that has been gaining momentum. It focuses on the use of microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria that act selectively against the various pests that affect crops. This is an alternative that does not harm the environment and facilitates control, compared to other methods such as physical control and cultivation, reducing labor. To use this technique, prior knowledge of the different species of controlling microorganisms and their interaction with specific pests is required. The leaf-cutting ant is an insect with a highly distinguished hierarchical organization, consisting of eight different castes, each of which plays a very important role within the colony. This insect plays a crucial role in soil physics, enabling nutrient transport, soil horizon translocation, and soil aeration, thus enabling plant root development, playing a crucial role in the ecosystem. In the agricultural sector, it is categorized as one of the pests that attack a wide variety of crops, such as citrus, bananas, cocoa, coffee, corn, among others of commercial importance, cutting the leaves of the plants using them as a substrate to establish the symbiotic fungus, which is its food source, affecting both the quantity and quality of agricultural products. This is where efficient alternatives are being sought to mitigate the damage caused by these insects, without causing environmental or microfauna damage. This is in addition to the market demand for efficient methods for controlling leaf-cutting ants, due to the withdrawal of traditionally used chemical insecticides from the market, opening the door to microbiological control as a possible solution. Among the microorganisms we can find are fungi such as Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae, and Trichoderma lignorum; and bacteria such as Bacillus thuringiensis, which can reduce populations below the threshold of economic damage. These alternative microbiological control methods for the leaf-cutting ant seek to evaluate the action, potential for mitigating damage, and effectiveness. They are subjected to different dosages and application methods. They conclude that these control methods can lead to total death of the individuals studied within a period of 2 to 7 days, all linked to the different doses treated. However, it would be most advisable to have data on these applications used in the field.