I'm a bug lover, myself -- not from childhood, by the way, but rather late. When I bachelored, majoring in zoology at Tel Aviv University, I kind of fell in love with bugs. And then, within zoology, I took the course or the discipline of entomology, the science of insects. And then I thought to myself, how can I be practical or help in the science of entomology? And then I moved to the world of plant protection -- plant protection from insects, from bad bugs. And then within plant protection, I came into the discipline of biological pest control, which we actually define as the use of living organisms to reduce populations of noxious plant pests. So it's a whole discipline in plant protection aimed at the reduction of chemicals.
我是蟲子的愛好者, 不過並不是從小就這樣, 是年紀較大以後才開始的。 在大學時期, 我在特拉維夫大學主修動物學, 我開始對蟲子產生興趣。 於是,在動物學系裡, 我選修了昆蟲學的相關課程, 昆蟲科學這門課。 當時我想著,我要怎麼去運用它呢? 或是我該如何對昆蟲科學有所貢獻? 接著我開始往保護植物的方向走 -- 保護植物不被昆蟲侵害, 被那些害蟲所侵害。 在保護植物這方面, 我開始接觸 生物抑制害蟲法, 我們對這方法的定義是 利用活著的有機生物 來降低對於植物有害的 那些害蟲數量。 在於植物保護上來說, 這種方式的目標是降低化學藥劑的使用量。
And biological pest control, by the way, or these "good bugs" that we are talking about, they've existed in the world for thousands and thousands of years, for a long, long time. But only in the last 120 years, people started, or people knew more and more how to exploit, or how to use, this biological control phenomenon, or in fact, natural control phenomenon, for their own needs. Because biological control phenomenon -- you can see it in your backyard. Just take a magnifying glass. You see what I have here? That's a magnifier, times 10. You just open it, twist leaves, and you see a whole new world of minute insects, or little spiders of one millimeter, one-and-a-half, two millimeters long, and you can distinguish between the good ones and the bad ones. So this phenomenon of natural control exists literally everywhere. Here, in front of this building, I'm sure. Just have a look at the plants. So it's everywhere, and we need to know how to exploit it.
這種生物抑制害蟲法, 或是我們所談的這種益蟲, 它們已經存在這世上好幾千年了, 已經很久很久了。 但是直到近120年左右 人們才逐漸開始知道, 如何去開發、利用它們, 以及如何去使用這種生物抑制害蟲法, 或者該說,自然抑制法, 來達到人們的目的。 因為生物抑制害蟲法 它就存在於你的後院裡面。 只要拿個放大鏡。你看我拿的這個是什麼? 這是一個十倍的放大鏡。 對,十倍而已。 打開它。 你只要把葉子翻開來,你就會發現一個新世界, 那裡有著微小的昆蟲, 長度只有 1 公釐, 1.5 公釐 或是2公釐大小的蜘蛛, 你可以去分辨益蟲和害蟲。 所以這種自然的抑制方式 確實在每個地方存在著。 我確定這棟建築物的前面就有。 看看這株植物。 到處都是, 我們需要知道怎麼去發現它。
Well, let's go hand by hand and browse through just a few examples. What is a pest? What damage does it actually inflict on the plant? And what is the natural enemy, the biological control agent, or the "good bug" that we're talking about? In general, I'm going to talk about insects and spiders, or mites, let us call them. Insects, those six-legged organisms and spiders or mites, the eight-legged organisms. Let's have a look at that. Here is a devastating pest, a spider mite, because it does a lot of webbing, like a spider. You see the mother in between, and two daughters, probably, on the left and right, and a single egg on the right-hand side. And then you see what kind of damage it can inflict.
好,讓我們逐項來看, 看看後面這些例子。 什麼是害蟲? 它會對植物產生什麼樣的害處? 還有它的天敵是什麼呢? 生物抑制害蟲的媒介, 或是我們所提到的益蟲? 大致上來說,我要談的 是昆蟲和蜘蛛, 或是蟎,我們這樣稱呼它好了。 昆蟲 -- 是那些有六隻腳的有機生物, 而蜘蛛或蟎, 它們是八隻腳的有機生物。 我們看看這個。 這是一隻害蟲,會搞破壞的害蟲,一隻蜘蛛蟎, 因為它像蜘蛛一樣會產生許多網狀的東西。 你看中間的那隻是媽媽 還有左右兩邊那大概是兩個女兒, 右手邊還有一個蛋。 接下來你可以知道它所造成的損害是什麼,
On your right-hand side, you can see a cucumber leaf, in the middle, a cotton leaf, and on the left, a tomato leaf with these little stipplings. They can literally turn from green to white, because of the sucking, piercing mouth parts of those spiders.
右手邊你可以看見黃瓜的葉子, 中間是棉花的葉子, 左邊是蕃茄的葉子, 這些蜘蛛利用尖嘴刺穿葉子, 吸食汁液之後, 讓這些葉子 由綠色轉變成白色。
But here comes nature, that provides us with a good spider. This is a predatory mite -- just as small as a spider mite; one, two millimeters long, not more than that -- running quickly, hunting, chasing the spider mites. And here, you can see this lady in action on your left-hand side -- just pierces, sucks the body fluids on the left-hand side of the pest mite. And after five minutes, this is what you see: just a typical dead corpse -- the shriveled, sucked-out, dead corpse of the spider mite, and next to it, two satiated individuals, predatory mites, a mother on the left-hand side, a young nymph on the right-hand side. By the way, a meal for them for 24 hours, is about five of the spider mites, of the bad mites, and-or 15 to 20 eggs of the pest mites. By the way, they are always hungry.
但接下來的是大自然 提供我們的益蟲蜘蛛。 這是一隻掠食性蟎 -- 和蜘蛛蟎一樣小, 1 公釐到 2 公釐左右的長度, 迅速的奔跑,獵食, 追逐著蜘蛛蟎。 你可以看見左手邊這位女士 正在用餐 -- 刺穿過左邊那隻蜘蛛蟎的身體, 吸食著它的體液。 大概五分鐘過後,結果如你所見, 只剩下一具典型的屍體 -- 充滿皺摺,已經被吸乾的, 蜘蛛蟎的屍體, 在旁邊的,則是兩隻 吃飽喝足的掠食蟎, 左手邊的是媽媽, 右手邊的是一個年輕小妞。 對了,對它們來說, 一天24小時的食物, 大概是5隻蜘蛛蟎,或是那些害蟲蟎, 或是 15 到 20 顆 害蟲蟎的蛋。 換句話說,它們一直都很飢渴。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And here is another example: aphids. It's springtime now in Israel. When temperatures rise sharply, you can see those bad ones, those aphids, all over the plants -- in your hibiscus, in your lantana, in the young, fresh foliage of the so-called spring flush. By the way, with aphids you have only females, like Amazons. Females giving rise to females, giving rise to other females. No males at all. Parthenogenesis, as it's so called. And they're very happy with that, apparently.
這是另一個例子:蚜蟲。 對了,現在在以色列正值春天, 溫度正快速在上升。 你可以看見那些有害的蚜蟲,在植物上到處都是, 在你的山芙蓉上,在你的馬纓丹上, 在那些被稱為春芽的 剛長出來的嫩葉上。 對了,那些蚜蟲,只有女性, 就像亞馬遜一族一樣。 女性生出女性,然後再生出女性。 完全沒有男性。 這被稱為單性生殖。 看起來它們對這件事還挺開心的。
(Laughter)
接下來我們可以看見它所造成的傷害。
Here we can see the damage. Those aphids secrete a sticky, sugary liquid called honeydew, and this just clogs the upper parts of the plant. Here you see a typical cucumber leaf that turned from green to black because of a black fungus, sooty mold, which is covering it.
這些蚜蟲會分泌 一些黏稠的,甜甜的液體, 稱作蜜汁。 這些會在植物的上面 形成小水珠的形狀。 你可以看見典型的黃瓜葉子 因為覆蓋在上面的黑色真菌 以及烏黑的黴菌 讓它從綠色變成了黑色。
And here comes the salvation, through this parasitic wasp. Here we are not talking about a predator. Here we are talking a parasite -- not a two-legged parasite, but an eight-legged parasite, of course. This is a parasitic wasp, again, two millimeters long, slender, a very quick and sharp flier. And here you can see this parasite in action, like in an acrobatic maneuver. She stands vis-à-vis in front of the victim at the right-hand side, bending its abdomen and inserting a single egg into the body fluids of the aphid. By the way, the aphid tries to escape. She kicks and bites and secretes different liquids, but nothing will happen, in fact -- only the egg of the parasitoid will be inserted into the body fluids of the aphid. And after a few days, depending upon temperature, the egg will hatch and the larva of this parasite will eat the aphid from the inside.
接下來拯救者上場了, 就是這個寄生的胡蜂。 這兒我們說的不是掠食者。 我們說的是寄生者, 並不是兩隻腳的寄生者, 而是六隻腳的寄生者。 這是寄生胡蜂, 大概 2 公釐長,相當纖細, 它是一種很迅速 相當機警的飛行者。 這邊你可以看見寄生的過程, 就像是在做特技表演一樣。 它正面對面的 從右手邊直接當著對手的面前, 彎起它的腹部 將一個蛋放進宿主體內, 一個蛋進入了 蚜蟲的體液之中。 對了,這隻蚜蟲試圖要逃脫。 它亂踢亂咬, 分泌不同的液體, 不過結果都沒有用。 寄生者只會放一個蛋 在蚜蟲的體液之中。 過了幾天之後,依據溫度狀況, 蛋就會孵化出來, 寄生者的幼蟲 會從內部將蚜蟲吃掉。
(Laughter)
這一切都是天生的,是自然的現象。
This is all natural. This is all natural. This is not fiction, nothing at all. Again -- in your backyard. In your backyard.
這可不是小說裡幻想的內容。 再說一次,就在你的後院裡, 在你的後院裡。
(Laughter)
這就是最後的結果。
(Applause)
But this is the end result: mummies. This is the visual result of a dead aphid encompassing inside, a developing parasitoid that, after a few minutes, you see halfway out. The birth is almost complete. You can see, by the way, in different movies, etc., it takes just a few minutes. And if this is a female, she'll immediately mate with a male and off she goes, because time is very short. This female can live only three to four days, and she needs to give rise to around 400 eggs. That means she has 400 bad aphids to put her eggs into their body fluids. This is, of course, not the end of it.
這就是最後的結果: 木乃伊 -- 木 - 乃 - 伊。 這是蚜蟲死亡後的外觀。 我們看看裡面。 事實上,寄生者成長的過程中 幾分鐘後你就會看見它幾乎跑出來了。 它已經幾乎變成成蟲了。 你可以在完整的紀錄片中看見這個。 這只不過是幾分鐘的事情。 如果這隻是雌鋒,它會立即和雄蜂交配, 之後就會立刻離開,因為它們沒有多少時間。 雌蜂只能存活三到四天的時間, 它必須生出 大約 4 百個蛋。 意思是說,它必須找到 400 隻 有害的蚜蟲 將蛋放進它們的體液中。 當然並不是就這樣而已。
There is a whole wealth of other natural enemies and this is just the last example. Again, we'll start first with the pest: the thrips. By the way, all these weird names -- I didn't bother you with the Latin names of these creatures, just the popular names. But this is a nice, slender, very bad pest. If you can see this: sweet peppers. This is not just an exotic, ornamental sweet pepper. This is a sweet pepper which is not consumable because it is suffering from a viral disease transmitted by those thrip adults. And here comes the natural enemy, minute pirate bug -- "minute," because it is rather small. Here you can see the adult, black, and two young ones. And again, in action. This adult pierces the thrips, sucking it within just several minutes, going to the other prey, continuing all over the place. And if we spread those minute pirate bugs, the good ones, for example, in a sweet pepper plot, they go to the flowers. And look -- this flower is flooded with predatory bugs, with the good ones, after wiping out the bad ones, the thrips. So this is a very positive situation. No harm to the developing fruit. No harm to the fruit set. Everything is just fine under these circumstances. But again, the question is, here you saw them on a one-to-one basis -- the pest, the natural enemy.
還有許多其他的天敵, 這只是最後的一個例子。 我們再回頭來看看這個害蟲: 牧草蟲。 對了,關於這些奇怪的名字 -- 我們這邊不談正式的學名, 嗯,這些只是俗稱而已。 這是一種很細小,很苗條, 很糟糕的害蟲。 看看這個甜椒。 這可不是外國品種,也不是裝飾用的甜椒, 這是一個已經不能吃的甜椒, 因為它被那些牧草蟲所帶的 濾過性病毒所感染了。 接下來,天敵登場了, 微小的掠食蟲, 說微小是因為它真的很小。 你可以看見那隻黑色的成蟲,還有兩隻幼蟲。 接下來又到了行動時間。 成蟲刺穿了牧草蟲, 只花了幾分鐘的時間去吸食, 然後就換另一個目標下手, 在這裡持續進行著。 如果我們散佈這種微小的掠食蟲,那種益蟲, 例如在種植甜椒的菜園裡, 它們會躲藏在花朵中。 看這裡,當那些掠食性的蟲,那些益蟲 將那些害蟲,牧草蟲都清理乾淨後, 花朵裏擠滿了這些益蟲。 所以這是相當正面的情況。 對成長中的果實不會有害處,對成熟的果實也沒有害處。 在這種情況下,一切都很美好。 不過問題是, 你可以發現這是一種一物剋一物的現象 -- 害蟲和它的天敵。
What we do is actually this. In Northeast Israel, in Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, there is a facility that mass-produces those natural enemies. In other words, what we do there is amplify the natural control, or the biological control phenomenon. And in 30,000 square meters of state-of-the-art greenhouses, there, we are mass-producing those predatory mites, those minute pirate bugs, those parasitic wasps, etc. Many different parts. By the way, they have a very nice landscape -- you see the Jordanian Mountains on the one hand, and the Jordan Valley on the other hand, and a good, mild winter and a nice, hot summer, which is an excellent condition to mass-produce those creatures. And by the way, mass-production -- it is not genetic manipulation. There are no GMOs -- genetically modified organisms -- whatsoever. We take them from nature, and the only thing that we do is give them the optimal conditions, under the greenhouses or in the climate rooms, in order to proliferate, multiply and reproduce. And that's what we get.
而我們正在做這件事。 在以色列的東北方, 在 Sde Eliyahu 的集體農場裡, 有一個機構 正在量產那些天敵。 換句話說,我們在那兒所做的, 就是去放大, 我們去放大自然抑制的效果, 或該說是生物抑制的機制。 在三萬五千平方尺的 新型溫室之中, 我們正在量產那些掠食性的蟎, 那些微小的掠食性的蟲, 那些寄生的胡蜂 ... 等等。 分成許多不同的區域。 對了,那兒有很棒的風景。 一邊有約旦山脈, 另一邊有約旦溪谷, 還有很棒,很溫和的冬天, 以及很讚,很熱的夏天, 對於量產這些生物來說, 這些是極佳的條件。 對了,這邊說的量產, 並不是基因改造工程。 沒有GMO, genetically modified organisms ( 生物基因改造 )這種事。 我們從自然界把益蟲找來, 我們只做一件事, 我們提供最佳的條件, 在溫室之中,或是在恆溫室裡, 使得這些益蟲能夠 快速地大量繁殖。 事實上,這也正是我們所得到的結果。
You see under a microscope. You see in the upper left corner? You see a single predatory mite. And this is the whole bunch of predatory mites. You see this ampul. You see this one. I have one gram of those predatory mites. One gram is 80,000 individuals. 80,000 individuals are good enough to control one acre, 4,000 square meters, of a strawberry plot against spider mites for the whole season of almost one year. And we can produce from this, believe you me, several dozens of kilograms on an annual basis. So this is what I call amplification of the phenomenon. And no, we do not disrupt the balance. On the contrary, because we bring it to every cultural plot where the balance was already disrupted by the chemicals. Here we come with those natural enemies in order to reverse a little bit of the wheel and to bring more natural balance to the agricultural plot by reducing those chemicals. That's the whole idea.
從顯微靜下你可以看見, 在左上角有單隻的掠食性蟎。 這是一堆我們在量產的那種掠食性蟎。 看看這個小瓶子。 這兒有一公克的掠食性蟎。 一公克裡有八萬隻, 八萬隻蟎 已經足以 在一英畝,也就是四千平方尺 的草莓田中, 在一整年的採收季節裡, 去解決那些蜘蛛蟎。 而藉由這個, 我們每年可以生產出 幾十公斤的數量。 這就是我說的 去放大這種自然機制。 我們並不是在破壞生態平衡。 相反的, 我們將這些益蟲導入到那些 已經被化學藥劑 破壞生態平衡的農田, 我們使用了這些天敵, 以期能夠將情況反轉過來, 藉由降低化學藥劑的使用, 讓農田能夠達到更高的自然平衡。 這就是我們的概念。
And what is the impact? In this table, you can actually see what is an impact of a successful biological control by good bugs. For example, in Israel, where we employ more than 1,000 hectares -- 10,000 dunams in Israeli terms -- of biological pests controlling sweet pepper under protection, 75 percent of the pesticides were actually reduced. And Israeli strawberries, even more -- 80 percent of the pesticides, especially those aimed against pest mites in strawberries. So the impact is very strong. And there goes the question, especially if you ask growers, agriculturists: Why biological control? Why good bugs? By the way, the number of answers you get equals the number of people you ask. But if we go, for example, to this place, Southeast Israel, the Arava area above the Great Rift Valley, where the pearl of Israeli agriculture is located, especially under greenhouse conditions, or under screenhouse conditions -- if you drive all the way to Eilat, you see this just in the middle of the desert. And if you zoom in, you can definitely watch this: grandparents with their grandchildren, distributing the natural enemies, the good bugs, instead of wearing special clothes and gas masks and applying chemicals. So safety, with respect to the application, is the number one answer that we get from growers, for "Why biological control?"
然而,成效如何呢? 藉由這個表,你可以確切的看見, 藉由使用益蟲成功進行生物抑制 所獲得的成效。 例如,在以色列, 我們在那兒 進行生物抑制害蟲, 來保護甜椒園, 已經超過了一千公頃 -- 用以色列的單位是一萬杜納畝, 已經確實讓農藥的使用量 減少了75%。 而以色列的草莓園所使用的農藥 -- 則甚至減少了80%, 尤其是那些針對草莓上有害的蟎的農藥。 所以效果是相當可觀的。 接下來的一些問題, 尤其是當你問那些耕種者,農民們: 為什麼會選擇生物抑制法? 為什麼選擇益蟲? 不過,不管你問了幾個人, 每個人都會給你不一樣的答案。 比方說這個地方, 以色列的東南方, 大裂谷上面一點的阿拉瓦區域, 那兒有著 -- 以色列最頂尖的 農業之寶, 尤其是在溫室條件之下,在透明的房間中 -- 如果你開車到 Eilat 的話, 你會發現它位在沙漠的中央。 如果你仔細去看, 你一定可以看見, 爺爺奶奶帶著孫子們, 正在散佈這些天敵,那些益蟲, 而不是穿戴著特殊衣物和防毒面具, 去噴灑著化學藥劑。 這種技術的使用是相當安全的, 這是我們詢問耕種者們為什麼要用生物抑制法 所獲得答案中的第一名。
Number two, many growers are, in fact, petrified by the idea of resistance, that the pests will become resistant to the chemicals, just like in our case, that bacteria becomes resistant to antibiotics. It's the same, and it can happen very quickly. Fortunately, in either biological control or even natural control, resistance is extremely rare. It hardly happens. Because this is evolution, this is the natural ratio, unlike resistance, which happens in the case of chemicals.
而第二名的答案, 許多耕種者會擔心 抗藥性的問題, 擔心這些害蟲 會逐漸對農藥產生抵抗力, 就像是白喉的病菌 對抗生素產生了抗體。 同樣的,這可能很快就會發生了。 所幸,不論是生物抑制法, 或是自然抑制法, 都很難會遇到抵抗的力量。 這幾乎不可能發生。 因為這是一種物種演化, 這是一種自然的機率, 不像是生物本身
And thirdly, public demand.
會對藥劑產生抵抗力。
The more the public demands the reduction of chemicals, the more growers become aware of the fact that they should, wherever they can and wherever possible, replace the chemical control with biological control. Even here, there is another grower, you see, very interested in the bugs, the bad ones and the good ones, wearing this magnifier already on her head, just walking safely in her crop.
第三名的答案是,公眾的需求。 大眾逐漸傾向於去支持 降低化學藥劑的使用量, 越來越多的耕種者發現到 他們應該竭盡所能, 改以生物抑制法 來取代化學藥劑抑制法。 甚至像是這個,有另一名耕種者, 她對這些小蟲很有興趣, 不論是害蟲或是益蟲, 手上拿著一個放大鏡, 在農作物裡面
Finally, I want to get to my vision,
安全地穿梭著。
or, in fact, to my dream. Because, you see, this is the reality. Have a look at the gap. If we take the overall turnover of the biocontrol industry worldwide, it's 250 million dollars. And look at the overall pesticide industry in all the crops throughout the world. I think it's times 100 or something like that. Twenty-five billion. So there is a huge gap to bridge. So actually, how can we do it? How can we bridge, or let's say, narrow, this gap over the years? First of all, we need to find more robust, good and reliable biological solutions, more good bugs that we can either mass-produce or actually conserve in the field. Secondly, to create even more intensive and strict public demand for the reduction of chemicals in agricultural fresh produce. And thirdly, also to increase awareness by the growers to the potential of this industry. And this gap really narrows. Step by step, it does narrow.
最後,我想談談我的看法, 或該說,是我的夢想。 因為你知道嗎,這就是現實狀況。 看看這個落差。 如果我們計算 全世界生物抑制法的花費, 大約是二億五千萬美金。 看看全世界在農作物上 使用的農藥花費。 我想大概會是一百倍左右吧。 大約二百五十億美金。 所以這有著很大的落差需要去填補。 所以事實上,我們該怎麼做? 我們要怎麼去填補,或者說讓這個落差 在每一年的生產中逐漸減小? 首先,我們需要更多健康的, 有益的,可以性賴的生物方案, 更多的益蟲, 不論是大量繁殖, 或是在田野中保持它的數量。 第二點,促使大衆做出 更強烈和更嚴格的要求, 來減少種植新鮮農產品時 所使用的化學藥劑。 第三點,加強耕種者對於 對於這種產業潛力的了解。 如此,這個落差就會變小。 逐漸地,就會縮小。
So I think my last slide is: All we are saying -- we can actually sing it -- Give nature a chance. I'm saying it on behalf of all the biocontrol practitioners and implementers, in Israel and abroad, really give nature a chance.
所以我最後一張投影片是: 我們所說的這些,都是可以作到的, 請給大自然一個機會。 我謹代表自然抑制法的 提倡者,以及執行者, 不論是在以色列還是其他國家,在此呼籲: 請給大自然一個機會吧。
Thank you.
謝謝大家。
(Applause)
(掌聲)