Catarroja Boosts Biological Pest Control

Catarroja is trying a pretty simple idea in its parks — fight bugs with bugs. The town has started releasing native beneficial insects into parks, gardens, and street-tree areas to knock back pest infestations that were hitting orange trees and ficus especially hard. The point is not just cleaner-looking trees. It is to keep public green space healthy without leaning so hard on chemical treatments, which can solve one problem while creating another. ### What exactly changed? The change is practical, not theoretical. Catarroja’s parks and gardens department began distributing larvae and juvenile specimens of ladybugs, lacewings, and other native insects as a pest-control measure in municipal green areas on April 26, 2024. These are predator insects — basically the town is adding the species that naturally eat the species causing the damage. (catarroja.es) ### Which pests are they targeting? The main targets are cottony cushion scale — called *cotonet* locally — plus aphids and other common plant pests. Those infestations were affecting municipal orange trees and ficus in particular. That matters because both are common urban plantings in Mediterranean towns, so when pests spread through them, the damage becomes very visible very fast. (catarroja.es) ### Why use insects instead of spraying? Because biological control is more selective. A broad chemical treatment can wipe out harmful insects, but it can also hit pollinators and other useful species that help keep an urban ecosystem stable. Predator insects work more like a balancing mechanism — not a sterilization campaign. The goal is to reduce pest pressure enough for trees and shrubs to recover, while preserving biodiversity in the same spaces people use every day. (catarroja.es) ### Why “native” insects? That part is important. Catarroja says it is using native species, not importing some exotic quick fix. Native beneficial insects are already adapted to the local climate and food web, so the intervention is less disruptive and easier to integrate into routine park management. In plain English — the town is trying to reinforce the ecosystem it already has, not bolt on an artificial one. (catarroja.es) ### Is this just about aesthetics? Not really. Urban trees do a lot of invisible work — shade, cooling, habitat, and a bit of air-quality help. When pests weaken them, the loss is bigger than a few damaged leaves. Catarroja is also in a period of green-space recovery, and the municipality has separately highlighted pest control and restoration work as part of managing public space after major disruption from the 2024 DANA flooding episode. (catarroja.es) ### Does this replace all pest control? Probably not. Biological control usually works best as one tool inside a broader maintenance program. If an infestation gets too far gone, towns still sometimes need targeted intervention. But the logic here is to move the baseline away from routine chemical dependence and toward prevention, monitoring, and ecological control first. (catarroja.es) ### Why does this matter beyond one town? Because municipalities everywhere are under the same pressure — keep parks healthy, protect residents from nuisance outbreaks, and avoid turning every maintenance problem into a pesticide problem. Catarroja is small, but this is the kind of local policy shift that shows what urban climate and biodiversity management looks like on the ground: fewer blanket treatments, more ecosystem management. (catarroja.es) ### So what should people watch next? The real test is whether the town repeats and scales the releases through the high-pest months, and whether tree health visibly improves in the affected orange trees and ficus. If that happens, this stops being a one-off municipal experiment and starts looking like a durable maintenance model. The bottom line is straightforward. (catarroja.es) Catarroja is not just killing pests. It is trying to rebuild a healthier urban ecosystem by letting the right insects do part of the work.