Good guys vs. Bad guys.
No, I’m not talking about a western movie or some NCAA tournament, though we are in the crazy days of March madness. This is the time of year when we have to be very diligent about controlling insect pests that might like to take advantage of the nice tender new growth on the plants in our greenhouses! This year at Sprucedale Gardens we have begun a program of releasing beneficial insects in the greenhouses to help us keep the “bad bugs” off our plants.
Aphids are a common pest in greenhouses and in the garden. We have started releasing a parasitic wasp called Aphidius colemani that will fly around the greenhouse searching for any aphids that might be on our plants. When the wasp finds an aphid, it lays an egg inside the aphid’s body. The larva that hatches from that egg then consumes the aphid from the inside! When it is fully grown, it turns into an adult wasp and crawls out of the host aphid to mate and then find more aphids to parasitize! We have also purchased predatory mites called Amblyseius cucumeris. These tiny little guys crawl around the soil in our containers and the leaves of our plants and search for other pest mites and thrips that feed on our plants. Once discovered, these pest species become lunch for the good guys. A third method we’re using is to apply tiny little worms called nematodes to the soil in our containers. These crafty little insects crawl through the soil searching for fungus gnat larva (another common pest in greenhouses) and thrips pupae, which they then crawl into and live inside. After several days, the pest dies and the nematodes reproduce inside the host insect. A few days later, hundreds new nematodes emerge and continue to process.
We’re very excited to implement this eco-friendly method of controlling the pests that we commonly encounter in the greenhouses. Although these beneficial insects are not cheap, (the cost is certainly more than just using conventional pesticide sprays), the bottom line is that we hope to be able to use far less pesticides and still provide you with high quality plants. It’s safer for us and our workers, and a lot more fun to apply than putting on a respirator and spraying the plants! Check out the photos of Paul and Joyce distributing the beneficial insects in the greenhouses last week. As we progress through the growing season, we need to deal with different pest insects, so we’ll be releasing more of these beneficial insects to help us combat those pests as well. May the good guys win!
