Sitophilus zeamais is a key pest in stored rice in Spain and other Mediterranean countries. Today, it is mostly controlled with a few pesticides, such as pyrethroids or phosphine. Apart from the problem of pesticide resistance, this can lead to the accumulation of toxic residues in the stored rice. Therefore, alternative control methods are needed. Biological control with the parasitoid Anisopteromalus calandrae is a feasible and sustainable alternative since it is very effective at limiting the growth of the weevil population. In this study, we evaluated the dispersal capacity and effectiveness of this parasitoid in controlling S. zeamais larvae located deep in 500 kg bags of paddy rice during two seasons, summer and autumn. The parasitoid was easily able to reach the bottom of the bags (1 m) in both seasons. At the released parasitoid-to-host ratio, the parasitoid was also able to limit weevil population growth by around 60% compared to the control treatment, based on the released parasitoid-to-host ratio, indicating that it offers an effective alternative control method.

Sitophilus zeamais是西班牙和其他地中海国家储存大米的主要害虫。今天，它主要用一些杀虫剂来控制，如拟除虫菊酯或磷化氢。除了抗药性问题外，这还会导致储存的大米中有毒残留物的积累。因此，需要替代的控制方法。用寄生蜂Anisopteromalus calandrae 进行生物控制是一种可行且可持续的替代方法，因为它在限制象鼻虫种群增长方面非常有效。在这项研究中，我们评估了这种寄生蜂在控制S. zeamais 方面的传播能力和有效性在夏季和秋季两个季节，幼虫位于 500 公斤稻谷深处。在两个季节中，寄生蜂都能够轻松到达袋子的底部 (1 m)。在释放的寄生蜂与宿主的比率下，基于释放的寄生蜂与宿主的比率，与对照处理相比，寄生蜂还能够将象鼻虫种群增长限制在 60% 左右，表明它提供了一种有效的替代控制方法.