Biological controls removing the need for Pecticides

For a long time, the range of pesticides that many growers having there ‘tool box’ to tackle unwanted pests within their crops has been reducing; for good reason! With some of the highest produce standards in the world, staying at the forefront of high quality food production with a very low environmental impact is so very important.

Many of our Glasshouse and Polytunnel growers are utilising Biological controls to tackle pests. In more simple terms, this is to introduce a ‘friendly’ insect that will remove the ‘damaging’ insect population and therefore remove the need to spray or treat with pesticides.

One example of this is the use of Amblyseius andersoni a tiny mite that comes in a packet of hundreds.. we then hang these little packets in the rows of fruit (Raspberries in this instance) to help control many insects, including whitefly, which can be enormoursly damaging amongst our crops.

These uses of biological control are the future of agriculture and low impact intensive food production. When I say intensive, I mean high volume low area, like a glasshouse or similar, that is producing the highest quality of produce. Its is technologies and developments like this that enhance the way that we grow and pave the way for further developments in food production and for this reason, we encourage many of our growers to ask further questions for us to knowledge share on this.