Guest lecture 1

Question 1

Is pest control an expensive part of greenhouse operations?

Answer 1

Nope. 1-2% of their costs

Question 2

Stats on greenhouse biocobtrols
- % of greenhouses using biocontrols
- crop loss to pests

Answer 2

94-100%
5-10%

Question 3

Reasons to use biocontrol in greenhouses

Answer 3

• protect the bees
• avoid resistance
• worker health
• consumer demand

Question 4

Reasons not to use biocontrol in greenhouses

Answer 4

• expensive
• hard to use
• they escape to the outside

Question 5

Challenges for biocontrol companies

Answer 5

• mass rearing
• demand forecasts
• international shipping
• quality assurance

Question 6

Why is preventative biocontrol hard?

Answer 6

You need to keep up the BCA populations but if there aren’t many hosts around, populations are hard to maintain
But you can use banker plants for that

Question 7

What has been a big shift in pest control over the years?

Answer 7

Shift from reactive to preventative pest control

We’ve gone from just using pesticides to a systems approach where we use pesticides and BCAs and more