Loxton+High+School

=**__Loxton High School - Year 10 Science Class__**= [|Environmental Scan]

**Teacher:** Mr Bruno Falcinella
We are in our early research stages of biological control. We have set up pumpkins affected by scale with aphytis wasps which lay their eggs under the scale and when they hatch they eat the scale from the inside out. This is an effective way of controlling scale in the industry naturally. Soon we will share with you some of more our results.

Recently our class visited **//'Biological Services'//** in Loxton. There they had numerous areas set up investigating the effectiveness of different biological control agents. Their largest area was filled with rows of tomato plants. These plants were being carefully monitored and looked after; the temperature, levels of Carbon Dioxide and the insects present were all being controlled. Normally the tomato blossoms are pollenated by European Bumblebees, but they have not been introduced to Australia because of the unknown impact of what they could do to our environment, so instead all the blossoms have to be pollenated by hand. Mr. Altman who runs Biological Sevices is very dedicated indeed! Below you can see some of the photos from our excursion.