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A wide range of biological control agents (BCAs) have been authorized and used in Hungary for the control of pests (including pathogens). BCAs are key elements of both integrated pest management and organic farming in different crops. Authorisation of BCAs depends on the type of ‘active substance’. Micro-organisms can be authorised under the EU Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 as plant protection products (PPP), while macro-organisms are not within its scope. Plant protection tools (traps, mating disruption) are registered at a national level in Hungary, although mass traps and mating disruption pheromones are considered to be PPP. Plant extracts can be authorised as PPP, but some of them can be approved as a ‘basic substance’, and in this case they do not need further authorisation. In Hungary the vast majority of macro-organisms used as biological control agents have been mainly used in greenhouses and plastic houses for the control of thrips, whiteflies, aphids, leaf mining flies, phytophagous mites and lepidopteran pests in vegetable and ornamental crops. Recently a non-indigenous chalcid wasp, Torymus sinensis has been successfully introduced for the control of the oriental chestnut gall wasp, Dryocosmus kuriphilus on chestnut (Castanea sativa) on different sites.

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This page is a summary of: Regulation and use of biological control agents in Hungary, EPPO Bulletin, July 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/epp.12310.
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