Could good bugs be the secret ingredient to pesticide-free vegetables?
October 26, 2024 9:20 PM Subscribe
Could good bugs be the secret ingredient to pesticide-free vegetables? An army of beneficial bugs is fighting the bad bugs that gnaw on your vegetables, protecting the borders of the largest greenhouse set-up in the southern hemisphere.
"This is necessary" - Tool
Neonicotinoid are thankfully banned outdoors in Europe, although the ban remains a political fight, and that idiocy remains legal inside permanent greenhouses. It's nice these greenhouse owners have adopted better ways.
Blossoms without bees in China.
The EU reauthorized glyphosate until 2033. Ugh
posted by jeffburdges at 12:44 AM on October 27
Neonicotinoid are thankfully banned outdoors in Europe, although the ban remains a political fight, and that idiocy remains legal inside permanent greenhouses. It's nice these greenhouse owners have adopted better ways.
Blossoms without bees in China.
The EU reauthorized glyphosate until 2033. Ugh
posted by jeffburdges at 12:44 AM on October 27
"integrated pest management (IPM), which includes introducing beneficial bugs"
I dunno what the answer is but IPM appears to embrace reductionist science in a super optimistic what-could-possibly-go-wrong way. MetaPrev on unintended consequences of adding a new species as a magic bullet to solve a problem.
That being said, The Man should really invest a lot of basic science money in studying Wolbachia. These bacteria thrive inside the cells of insect vectors and other animals and bend their hosts to their will in all sorts of mad ways. Wolbachia are binned with Rickettsiae: a subset of the alpha-proteobacteria. We've met Rickettsia as the probable ancestor of mitochondria.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:12 AM on October 27 [1 favorite]
I dunno what the answer is but IPM appears to embrace reductionist science in a super optimistic what-could-possibly-go-wrong way. MetaPrev on unintended consequences of adding a new species as a magic bullet to solve a problem.
That being said, The Man should really invest a lot of basic science money in studying Wolbachia. These bacteria thrive inside the cells of insect vectors and other animals and bend their hosts to their will in all sorts of mad ways. Wolbachia are binned with Rickettsiae: a subset of the alpha-proteobacteria. We've met Rickettsia as the probable ancestor of mitochondria.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:12 AM on October 27 [1 favorite]
Can confirm that these strategies are being used successfully in botanic and public garden greenhouses to reduce pesticide use.
posted by sciencegeek at 3:50 AM on October 27 [2 favorites]
posted by sciencegeek at 3:50 AM on October 27 [2 favorites]
The article didn't have much info. The practice is called integrated pest management (IPM) and the only example of "good bug" was the wasp Aphidius: "One female wasp can actually go and parasitise 300 aphids just within a few days," Dr Marquart said.
A second article mentions ladybugs:
A researcher at Murdoch University has trained two species of ladybird to hunt down and eat the tomato potato psyllid (TPP).
First identified in WA in 2017, TPPs are a wasp-like pest that can halve yields when it infests tomato, potato, capsicum, chilli, eggplant and sweet potato crops.
The insect can also spread zebra chip, a serious bacterial disease that has spoiled potatoes in New Zealand since 2008.
PhD researcher Shovon Chandra Sarkar said the psyllid was relatively new to the state and that ladybirds needed to be trained to recognise them as food.
"I feed them with psyllid in the lab; first for one generation or for some days," he said. "I found that if I train them, their babies directly start eating psyllid."
posted by AlSweigart at 5:26 AM on October 27 [3 favorites]
A second article mentions ladybugs:
A researcher at Murdoch University has trained two species of ladybird to hunt down and eat the tomato potato psyllid (TPP).
First identified in WA in 2017, TPPs are a wasp-like pest that can halve yields when it infests tomato, potato, capsicum, chilli, eggplant and sweet potato crops.
The insect can also spread zebra chip, a serious bacterial disease that has spoiled potatoes in New Zealand since 2008.
PhD researcher Shovon Chandra Sarkar said the psyllid was relatively new to the state and that ladybirds needed to be trained to recognise them as food.
"I feed them with psyllid in the lab; first for one generation or for some days," he said. "I found that if I train them, their babies directly start eating psyllid."
posted by AlSweigart at 5:26 AM on October 27 [3 favorites]
One origin of wineries selling random fruit and veggie products is the wineries planting sacrificial fields next to their grapes to attract (and distract) local insect and animal populations, either to eat the grape pests or to provide a more desirable food source. It isn’t always necessary to import non-local insects, so long as you grow food for the ones you want to see more of.
posted by Callisto Prime at 6:19 AM on October 27 [4 favorites]
posted by Callisto Prime at 6:19 AM on October 27 [4 favorites]
The EU reauthorized glyphosate until 2033.
jeffburdges
In NZ it's reasonably widely accepted (inc in agriculture)that glyphosate will be banned as it's becoming more widely know how it works, and its effects on all living systems - including human gut function, and in marine systems. Although sadly this won't happen under the current government who are fundamentalist maniacs - somehow we will have to eradicate them before we can move forward.
When I was first studying horticulture, I worked on a very large fruit farm where there was a full time invertebrate zoologist. They were practicing IPM as well as some limited insecticide, but carefully matched with Invertebrate breeding and living cycles.
When I visited the Eden Project in Cornwall in 2010, there was a reasonable amount of Information about their use of IPM as part of problematic Invertebrate control.
These are always very complex operations and I do find people with odd naïve Utopian ideas about the use of invertebrates - as BobTheScientist highlights above.
I'm often asked by clients to design their landscape for the birds, and I say I will design for the insects and invertebrates first as that will ensure the birds can self sustain. It is perfectly possible to design a scheme for the birds ... and miss out all of the invertebrate-supporting plant life that especially juvenile birds need when just out of the egg. Many obligate plant eating birds are carnivores as juveniles.
posted by unearthed at 1:22 PM on October 27 [3 favorites]
jeffburdges
In NZ it's reasonably widely accepted (inc in agriculture)that glyphosate will be banned as it's becoming more widely know how it works, and its effects on all living systems - including human gut function, and in marine systems. Although sadly this won't happen under the current government who are fundamentalist maniacs - somehow we will have to eradicate them before we can move forward.
When I was first studying horticulture, I worked on a very large fruit farm where there was a full time invertebrate zoologist. They were practicing IPM as well as some limited insecticide, but carefully matched with Invertebrate breeding and living cycles.
When I visited the Eden Project in Cornwall in 2010, there was a reasonable amount of Information about their use of IPM as part of problematic Invertebrate control.
These are always very complex operations and I do find people with odd naïve Utopian ideas about the use of invertebrates - as BobTheScientist highlights above.
I'm often asked by clients to design their landscape for the birds, and I say I will design for the insects and invertebrates first as that will ensure the birds can self sustain. It is perfectly possible to design a scheme for the birds ... and miss out all of the invertebrate-supporting plant life that especially juvenile birds need when just out of the egg. Many obligate plant eating birds are carnivores as juveniles.
posted by unearthed at 1:22 PM on October 27 [3 favorites]
We know how "roundup ready" crops work too, so academics should develop, and activists should produce, roundup ready "weeds" for different areas. At this point some weeds have developed glyphosate resistance by themselves, but humans could ensure ones benefitial to pollinators and/or toxic to cattle do better, like maybe butterfly milkweed, water/poison hemlock, death camas, etc.
2,4-D and dicamba have become popular, but sounds very nasty. If some weeds could be made resistant then these toxins might not become so popular.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:48 PM on October 27 [2 favorites]
2,4-D and dicamba have become popular, but sounds very nasty. If some weeds could be made resistant then these toxins might not become so popular.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:48 PM on October 27 [2 favorites]
I'm a PhD ecologist working in ag for many years now, and I am still regularly surprised by how difficult farming is, just one long struggle of scheduling and tradeoffs and choices you wish you had more information about. Researchers, both academic and industry, are spending their lives trying to solve these problems so we can continue having food in the quantity and quality we're used to. And honestly I get pretty frustrated when somebody who saw one popular article about how pesticides are bad thinks they can waltz in and fix things.
There is currently a ton of research being done on "biological" pesticides, including strains of bacteria and fungi and isolated compounds from them to manage pest problems. Increasing regulation of synthetic pesticides drives this, if nothing else. Unfortunately, IME, they often don't work. There's a lot of context-dependence when you're using living things, which is likely part of the problem, and part of how synthetic pesticides became so dominant in the first place.
2-4,D dates to WWII. Dicamba dates to 1962. They are much less popular than they used to be, because they're dangerous and we have other options now. Glyphosate became so popular because it is a significantly safer alternative to other herbicides. Glyphosate is also frequently used in habitat restoration and invasive plant control programs. I don't think making it useless is a great idea.
Beneficial insects are *part* of IPM, it also involves scouting for pests, making sure you correctly identify them, potentially accepting some crop loss before treating for pests, and can include using synthetic pesticides if you can't manage pests other ways. And insects introduced for pest control are very carefully vetted (after a few epic fails in past decades).
posted by momus_window at 2:01 PM on October 30 [1 favorite]
There is currently a ton of research being done on "biological" pesticides, including strains of bacteria and fungi and isolated compounds from them to manage pest problems. Increasing regulation of synthetic pesticides drives this, if nothing else. Unfortunately, IME, they often don't work. There's a lot of context-dependence when you're using living things, which is likely part of the problem, and part of how synthetic pesticides became so dominant in the first place.
2-4,D dates to WWII. Dicamba dates to 1962. They are much less popular than they used to be, because they're dangerous and we have other options now. Glyphosate became so popular because it is a significantly safer alternative to other herbicides. Glyphosate is also frequently used in habitat restoration and invasive plant control programs. I don't think making it useless is a great idea.
Beneficial insects are *part* of IPM, it also involves scouting for pests, making sure you correctly identify them, potentially accepting some crop loss before treating for pests, and can include using synthetic pesticides if you can't manage pests other ways. And insects introduced for pest control are very carefully vetted (after a few epic fails in past decades).
posted by momus_window at 2:01 PM on October 30 [1 favorite]
« Older Notes from the last week in GOTV and actions you... | Short but great Newer »
posted by LeRoienJaune at 9:57 PM on October 26 [3 favorites]