April 2019 - 14

duets
BY PETER KONJOIAN AND GREG BRYANT
Biological Insect Control: State of the Industry and Future Success
it works, growers frequently expand the
program the following season.
Peter: Pesticide resistance is a big deal;
Peter Konjoian is president of Konjoian's Horticulture
Education Services Inc. His career spans four decades as a
commercial grower, researcher and consultant. Greg Bryant
is IPM specialist with Beneficial Insectary. Konjoian can be
reached at peterkfes@comcast.net.
T
oday's guest is Greg Bryant, IPM
Specialist for Beneficial Insectary.
Greg earned his bachelor's degree
from Auburn University in 2012 majoring
in zoology with an entomology focus. He
worked for various entomology and crop
science laboratories before entering the
biocontrol industry in 2017. In 2018, he
started with Beneficial Insectary.
Peter: Hi Greg, thanks for sharing your
knowledge with us today. Where does
the horticulture industry stand in terms
of adopting biological insect control
products? How are the different industry
production sectors of greenhouse
ornamentals and controlled environment
agriculture (CEA) edible crops
progressing with biological control?
Greg: Hi Peter. The biocontrol
industry is growing for sure. CEA
edible crops have been on board
with biocontrol for years. This is
especially true for vegetable crops
like tomatoes, cucumbers and bell
peppers. Ornamentals have been
steadily trying to catch up, though.
There are several factors for this. One
is pesticide resistance, especially with
thrips. Growers often become frustrated
trying to control them using traditional
means, so they often turn to biocontrol
companies. Most of the time they'll start
off small and try biocontrol in just a few
sections of their facility, or in a couple of
isolated greenhouses. Once they see that
14 APRIL 2019 GPNMAG.COM
growers have heard dire warnings about it
for many years. How do you see growers
using biologicals with regard to resistance
management? Do more choose to move to
biologicals and leave traditional products
behind in order to avoid resistance or do
more choose to incorporate biologicals
into their traditional approach as a way to
delay resistance and extend pesticide life?
Greg: What I see most often is once
a grower is comfortable having a full
biocontrol program, he or she will mix
in the traditional products only as
needed. There are some synergies that
these products can provide while using
biocontrol agents (BCAs), but if a grower
is on a robust biocontrol program, that is
typically their first line of defense.
They tend to treat the traditional
products as the last resort if something
goes wrong, and even then, they try to
stick with the " softer " chemistries that
will do the least harm to their BCAs. In
fact, a lot of growers turn to biocontrol
because they're told they can't spray
some of the products they're used to
using and nothing else works for them.
Restrictions on pesticide use, whether
it's government regulations or buyers
like Home Depot banning the use of
neonicotinoids on the plants they sell
can be a big problem for growers. Taking
away tools in their toolboxes leads to
finding alternatives. This ties in to some
other reasons the biocontrol industry
is growing. Worker safety, REIs, the
general public wanting to move towards
" pesticide free, " and retail growers having
to spray after hours are all issues that
growers must deal with, and biocontrol is
a great solution.
Peter: Okay, progress continues, Greg
but let's talk about pushing faster. Share
some suggestions for greater industry
adoption and success.
Greg: One of the main factors for
success, especially if you are new to
biocontrol, is having good technical
support. Find a representative that you
trust and that has a good reputation
from other growers. If that person has
put together other successful biocontrol
programs, he or she can likely do the
same for you.
You can also talk to other growers
that use biocontrol and find out what
is working for them. There are always
little tips and tricks that growers are
taking advantage of. Attend conference
education sessions where speakers
discuss biocontrol. Ask questions. Also,
trust what your biocontrol rep says, and
don't be too quick to jump on the spray
gun. Keep accurate notes, not only of the
pest pressure, but scout for your BCAs
and keep track of them too.
Learn what the tipping point is, where
the BCAs being used are starting to tip
the scale in their favor and overtake the
pests. If you are seeing thrips on sticky
cards, is Orius also present? How many?
Keep in mind that one Orius can kill up to
80 thrips in a day. They don't even eat all
of them, they're that aggressive. If you
are seeing thrips, but also catching Orius
on your sticky cards, or seeing them on
your plants, unless the ratio is way out of
balance, the thrips likely won't stand
a chance.
Mummified aphids can also be
an indicator of the tipping point. As
an example, do to some unusual
environmental conditions, one of my
growers had a terrible aphid outbreak on
ornamental peppers. I visited and saw
thousands of aphids, but also hundreds
of mummies. A week later, nearly every
aphid was either eaten by an aphid
predator (some naturally occurring since
they didn't spray) or mummified by an
Aphidius parasitoid wasp (Figure 1). The
grower trusted that the tipping point had
been reached and the aphids were going
to lose the war very soon.
Peter: Earlier you mentioned a common
approach where a grower will start out
on a small scale testing biologicals in
a few sections of a range or several
greenhouses before transitioning
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April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2019
