FEATURE

Contact: Danielle Gordon

Communications Intern
Vineland Research and Innovation Centre
Tel: (705) 305-9787
danielle.gordon@vinelandresearch.com

Biological Control: Past, Present and Future

VINELAND STATION, ON. Mar. 14, 2015 Biological control (biocontrol) can be
described simply as the use of living organisms to manage pests. Human regulation of
these biocontrol organisms however, is not so simple. Ensuring that high quality natural
predators are being used to manage the pests is essential to biocontrol programs. Until
recently, there existed no standards for ensuring that high quality predators were
delivered from suppliers to growers. Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (Vineland)
has published a guide on quality control assessments upon biocontrol delivery with the
intentions that proper feedback on products can be given to suppliers so distribution of
high quality products can be maintained.
Biocontrol use is an alternative to managing greenhouse crop pests with
chemicals. When used correctly, these living manage pests as effectively as pesticides.
The use of biocontrol agents to manage pests on greenhouse crops comes with numerous
benefits when compared with the use of pesticides. Using biocontrols greatly reduces the
health and environmental risks associated with chemicals. Biocontrols do not allow for
pests to form resistance chemicals. Biocontrols also eliminate problems with pesticide
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residue being left on plants as well as the chance of any phytotoxic effects occurring. For
biocontrol use to be successful at managing pests, the products shipped by suppliers must
arrive in the highest quality possible. Quality control checks are completed at the supplier
level before a shipment is sent to a grower to ensure that the product is of high
quality, however many factors during shipping can directly affect the quality of the
biocontrol agents. Some of these factors include long shipping and storage times,
temperature extremes, condensation, restricted oxygen supply and unnaturally high
population density. To ensure that the quality of the biocontrols is not adversely affected
upon arrival, growers should open shipments immediately and assess the condition of the
biocontrol agents.
Rose Buitenhuis, PhD, Research Scientist of Biological Control at Vineland
Research and Innovation Centre has developed a guide for assessing the quality of
biocontrol shipments upon their arrival at a greenhouse. This quality assurance guide
describes the simple materials required for initial quality checks and also goes into detail
on inspection protocol for various species of controls. Buitenhuis believes that successful
biocontrol depends on a system. The three main elements of the system involve
choosing the bios, keeping these bios happy and providing stakeholders and suppliers
with feedback, says Buitenshuis. The hope for the quality assurance guide is that it can
become a tool to improve two-way communication and allow for feedback between
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growers and suppliers. The guide also contributes to the system by creating standards for
how biocontrol agents should arrive at greenhouses, which should make selecting
appropriate agents and keeping them happy easier for growers.
One of the challenges involved in biocontrol is communicating what it is to
stakeholders and consumers and addressing misconceptions surrounding it. Because
biocontrol is becoming the industry standard for pest management in greenhouse crops it
is becoming increasingly important that consumers understand what it is. As previously
mentioned, biocontrol involves using living organisms to manage crop pests. Buitenhuis
prefers to use the term manage over control to describe how pests are handled
because they are living organisms and cannot be entirely controlled by a grower. Using
natural predators to eat the pests manages the quantity and harmful properties of the pests
allowing growers to produce a high quality crop. This method is used for
both edible crops and flowers. A misconception that surrounds the use of
biocontrols is that the end product is completely organic. Like
Figure 1: Our
communications intern
holding a cockroach; a
common biocontrol agent.

organically produced crops, using biocontrol methods

eliminates the need for pesticides however, producing

organic products involves many other processes. Consumers in 2015 are

more concerned than
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ever about where their food is coming from and how it is produced. During this time
consumers should be aware that the majority of greenhouse vegetables grown in North
America utilize biocontrol systems over the use of pesticides.
In a short amount of time biocontrol has become an industry standard for growing
greenhouse crops. When looking forward to the future of biocontrols, Buitenhuis sees
research into how to extend the current system to outdoor crops. We know how to make
it work in greenhouses and I can see the demand for it in outdoor crops, says Buitenhuis.
There will obviously be many more factors to consider when establishing a system for
using biocontrols outdoors, but Buitenhuis and the team at Vineland believe it is a very
real possibility for the future of biocontrol. The implementation of the quality assurance
guide in greenhouses across Canada is certainly a step in the right direction.

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