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On the sidebar of my blog, there's a photo of a cactus prickle pear. It's one of my very favorite fruits. I like everything about it (including its derivates of juice and jelly, and even its thick, semi-thorny outer jacket), except... its price at our local supermarket. Not cheap.
thorny outside, soft and sweet with many little seeds inside *
Anyhow, recently I've read some news about the prickle pear. The good news is that there are some new species of it that are going to be proclaimed the Superfood of the future years. Not really surprising; this soft, sweet fruit is packed with lots of nutrients and health benefits.
The bad news is that in the meantime it's getting damaged by an insect ,Dactylopius coccus, which lives on cacti; this bug could lead to massive extermination of the cacti bushes that produce the fruit. It's already happening in northern Ethiopia.
cactus shrub *
The Dactylopius is rather an economically important parasite. The dried bodies of its females were, and still are a source of the red dye used in the textile industry (especially in South America). In some cases, certain species of it can also help fighting pest infestations.
The conventional, manual measures taken against Dactylopius attack on cactus , are effective only in small - scale cultivations. In larger scale cultivations, alternative, biological warfare ( done by bio insecticides) is needed.
In Mexico, which is the largest producer of prickly pears in the world, they've been using for some time (quite successfully) certain bugs that attack the specific attacker of the cacti shrubs . As far as I know, Israel was authorised by the proper authority to import from Mexico, at least two of these 'attack the attacker ' bugs.
They say there are no winners in war. Hopefully, in this kind of war, the cacti bushes and their fruit will win the battle.There's too much at stake here. In various parts of the world , in Africa and South America - the prickle pear is essential food and provides basic remedies to several local health issues.
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