According to monitoring by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Lanzendorf, Maria Lanzendorf and Zwölfaxing were among the municipalities most affected by the rice weevil in 2023. Until now, the ichneumon wasp has only been used as a beneficial insect against the rice bug in agriculture. It was recently approved for use in private gardens. In the course of a workshop organized by KLAR! Lanzendorf+ manager Sonja Wirgler, around 30 households are taking part in the project. Trissohelp (distributed by Biohelp Garten-Bienen: https://www.biohelp-profi.at/nuetzlinge-bestaeubungshilfen/trissohelp-trissolcus-basalis.html) is applied as a 3-part treatment with paratized egg clutches of the ichneumon wasp. The beneficial insect lays its eggs in the rice bug’s eggs and thus prevents the pest from hatching. As the ichneumon wasp reproduces more quickly than the rice bug, ideally there will be no plague like last year, when some of the crops in private gardens were completely destroyed. The campaign will be accompanied by a questionnaire: We would like to collect as many empirical values as possible about the application of Trissohelp, the hatching behavior and the effects on the rice bug population. These will be forwarded anonymously to AGES and Natur im Garten. The project was developed in the course of the lecture organized by KLAR! Lanzendorf+ organized lecture “Beneficial insects and pests in the garden” in April 2024. AGES expert Anna Moyses presented the ichneumon wasp as a (possible) beneficial insect in private households at the event.
