Beneficial nematodes for pest control.

Excellent article on using beneficial nematodes for control of pests in greenhouses.
Boosting your BCAs

Free good bug guide for the garden

Looking for a way to ID those beneficial in your garden? This FREE printable pocket guide is a great tool to do that for you. Downloadable and printable these quick reference cards will be a big help in the garden, keeping gardeners from killing the good guys. A must for organic gardeners! FREE NATURAL ENEMIES GUIDE

Plant parasitic nematodes better watch out!

After many years of waiting, Pasteuria usgae is now registered with the EPA. Pasteuria Bioscience developed the technology to be able to rear the Pasteuria on a large economically feasible scale. This fungus is looking to be among the most promising biological agents for control of plant-parasitic nematodes. Read more....

Plants Taking Up Antibiotics From Manures

A study has shown that antibiotics commonly added to animal feed can be taken up by plants that use manures for fertilization. In one study the test crops were corn (Zea mays L.), green onion (Allium cepa L.), and cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. Capitata group). Scientists found the higher the concentration in the manure, the higher the antibiotic levels were in the plants. Other research has looked at potato crops. That work found antibiotics in the potato tubers, which suggests that root crops which are directly in contact with soil may be particularly vulnerable to antibiotic contamination.

Antibiotic Uptake by Plants from Soil Fertilized with Animal Man

Plants uptake antibiotics

Crops absorb livestock antibiotics, science shows

Antibiotic Uptake by Plants from Soil Fertilized with Animal Manure

Ladybugs - Should you buy them?

With spring arriving many gardeners are looking to be more “green” or even organic. There are many ways to do this but one area many are interested in is pest management. Unfortunately people’s good efforts are not always so eco-friendly. From the time we are young we are told that ladybugs (ladybird beetles) are good, and they are! They are excellent to have in the garden, but the real question is, “should you buy them and release them?”

Buying ladybugs… is it a good idea?

First thing you should think about is where they are coming from. Almost all “red” ladybugs are harvested from the wild. In the Spring, as the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys warm up the ladybugs (Hippodamia convergens) migrate to the Sierra Nevada foothills. There, they congregate in large numbers on the forest floors. Businesses then come along and scoop up the beetles, removing them from their native habitat. They are then taken to coolers for storage until they are to be shipped. So, why is this an issue?

• It removes ladybugs from their native habitat.


• Once released most will not stick around, they leave, providing little or no control.


• A percent of the ladybugs may be parasitized by a small wasp, Dinocampus coccinellae. It develops as an internal parasite of lady beetles and kills them. Research has shown this to be an issue. A study found on average 8% of the ladybugs purchased by researchers carried parasites.*


• Microsporidia, a disease of ladybugs, was also detected in individuals from 13 of 22* shipments in these studies.
  

So by releasing infected ladybird beetles you may be spreading these parasites and diseases. It’s much more effective and eco-friendly to attract them in naturally with organically** grown plants like, dill, yarrow, sunflowers, angelica, and other assorted flowering plants. If you want to do a release of beneficial insects, release laboratory reared ones. An excellent option to ladybugs are green lacewings. The larva of green lacewings will do an excellent job of feeding on plant pests such as aphids, mealybug crawlers, scale crawlers and other garden pests. They are commercially available from Beneficial Insectary.

*Natural enemies of the convergent lady beetle, Hippodamia convergens Guérin-Méneville: Their inadvertent importation and potential significance for augmentative biological control. S. Bjørnson Department of Biology, Saint Mary’s University, 923 Robie Street, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 3C3 Abstract
** Organically grown plants will not have harsh pesticide residue on them that can kill the beneficials. They will also not have systemic pesticides inside of them that can not be washed off.

Growing a Greener World Podcast

Here is my latest guest appearance on the Growing a Greener World with Joe Lamp’l podcast. We talk about some of those summer garden pests and how to deal with them. Be sure to swing by Joe's site at http://www.joegardener.com/

And for those that missed it, here is my first appearance on the show where we talk about attracting beneficial insects, Japanese beetle control, beneficial nematodes & new biodegradable planting pots.

Go D'hara