SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 15 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife has eliminated a total of 523 termite outbreaks on the island, of the 8,192 baits installed with biocide. Of the 523 points in which the termite has already been eliminated, 279 are located in Tacoronte, 204 in La Laguna, 16 in Arona and 24 in Santiago del Teide.
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, and the Minister of Natural Environment Management and Security, Isabel García, have visited this week one of the “hot spots” in the Tagoro area, in Tacoronte, where they could see how the plague “goes back perceptibly after the installation of the biocide baits”, as indicated by the person in charge of the work Juan Pestano, belonging to the company Tragsatec.
The president of the Cabildo and the counselor have been able to see how the treatment is advancing at a good pace and have been able to verify, in situ, how the presence of termites has been reduced in areas where two years ago it was manifestly active, such as this area of Tacoronte, he said the president, who valued the work of the crews on the ground.
Pedro Martín pointed out that real-time GPS monitoring of the baits and stakes also provides almost millimetric control of the evolution of the plague, which is perimeter and bounded and no new focus has appeared, “so we can be calm”, and stressed that the project is not limited to the placement of baits, but involves other processes of early attention, chipping remains and updated information on the web.
To date, several outbreaks have been completely eliminated, specifically that of Arona and Los Naranjeros, and there are some in which there is very little activity and they show signs of elimination, such as the so-called ground zero, Parque Atlántico urbanization, Puerto de la Madera, the road to Guayonge, Garimba, Barranco de San Juan, La Barranquera and Santiago del Teide.
On the contrary, there are still four points where the activity of the insect remains high. These are El Pris, Tagoro, the area adjacent to ground zero, and Valle Guerra.
In total, some 12,386 wooden stakes have been installed on the Island to detect the presence of Reticulitermes flavipes and 8,059 stations with the biocide in those points infested by the plague; this reaches a total of 20,445 checkpoints. A budget of about 2 million euros has been earmarked for this.
In addition, indicated the Minister of Management of the Natural Environment, “an early detection and rapid intervention system is being carried out, through which any citizen can notify the possible presence of the species. After the notification, a team is mobilized to verify if it is the species, and in that case the necessary treatment is carried out to guarantee the elimination of the population”.
The counselor stressed, however, that the population must be vigilant and notify the presence of any unknown insect that moves in environments where there is wood to notify it immediately. She concluded by pointing out that citizen collaboration is fundamental; For this reason, brochures are distributed in the town halls in which information about the insect and its characteristics is given, as well as telephone numbers and the web address.
Most of the centers in which activity occurs are in the municipality of Tacoronte, specifically 193, followed by La Laguna with 16 and Santiago del Teide with only two. This project, which is in phase two or control, includes 5,472 stations in Tacoronte, 2,341 in La Laguna, 126 in Arona and 253 in Santiago del Teide.
