[APWG] Innovative idea for raising beneficial insects

[Jil_Swearingen at nps.gov]

This is a terrific idea. Kudos to the folks who came up with the idea and
followed it through.
Jil


----- Forwarded by Jil Swearingen/NCR/NPS on 11/23/2004 09:19 AM -----


SANFORD, Fla.---Inmates at the Seminole County Correctional Facility, who
have been growing their own vegetables for more than 10 years, are now
raising thousands of beneficial bugs that attack insect pests and feed on
troublesome weeds in Florida.

The insect "farming" program - the first of its kind in the nation - will
generate about $2,000 a year for the inmate welfare fund at the facility
and
help inmates develop marketable skills for future employment.

"The project is the result of a new partnership with the University of
Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences to help inmates learn
about biological control - raising good bugs that prey on bad bugs and
weeds
- and reduce the need for chemical pesticides," said Debra Taylor, a deputy
who supervises the training program at the Seminole County facility. "These
beneficial bugs not only help control pests on our own veggie crops, but we
are raising thousands of insects for researchers at the UF and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture."

Twelve women inmates participating in the biocontrol program receive
training and certification from UF, which launched the project in
cooperation with USDA, Taylor said. UF training and certification as
"insect
scouts" - recognized by nurserymen and wholesale plant growers in Central
Florida - could help the women find employment when they are released from
the correctional facility.

Lance Osborne, a professor of entomology at UF's Mid-Florida Research and
Education Center in Apopka who developed the concept, said the program was
started because there are no commercial biocontrol insect producers in
Florida.

"Raising insects for biocontrol is labor intensive and expensive, which
makes the project ideal for inmates in correctional facilities," he said.
"With the help of a grant from USDA's Animal, Plant Health Inspection
Service, we launched the pilot project in cooperation with the Seminole
County facility."

He said inmates in Seminole County are now producing two different kinds of
beneficial insects. One is an insect predator that controls pests on
ornamental plants in greenhouses, and the other is a beetle that feeds on
the leaves of tropical soda apple, one of the most troublesome weeds in the
state.

In order to manage the whitefly pest problem in greenhouses where
vegetables, herbs and ornamentals are grown, Osborne developed a biocontrol
system that relies on the production of "banker plants" for Central Florida
growers.

"A banker plant is a plant that has been infested with both the target pest
and its natural predator," he said. "For instance, papaya plants attract
the
papaya whitefly and a parasitic wasp that controls the whitefly on the
papaya host plants as well as silverleaf whitefly on other greenhouse
plants. As a result, an infested papaya plant becomes a bank of beneficial
insects that can be placed in greenhouses to control ornamental pests, such
as the whitefly, without applying pesticides."

Osborne feels that the wasp is the "best natural enemy" of the silverleaf
whitefly pest in greenhouses. But, the wasp was not being commercially
produced in large numbers, which is one of the primary reasons for starting
the banker plant system at the Seminole County facility.

He said there is a demand for the new banker plant technology, which is not
being produced anywhere else in the nation at this time. Banker plants are
grown in one- to three-gallon containers that sell for $10 to $15 per
plant,
and demand is rapidly rising.

Inmates also are raising thousands of beetles (Gratiana boliviana) that
will
be released in pastures across Florida to control tropical soda apple. The
weed is so invasive that other plants cannot grow around it.

To combat the pest without using harmful herbicides, UF researchers
traveled
to South America where the weed originated and found a natural predator
that
feeds solely on the plant. After conducting extensive studies with USDA, UF
researchers have begun releasing the beetles in pastures across the state
to
eliminate the weed.

"Despite positive test results, we do not have enough beetles available for
release," Osborne said. "That's why we turned to the inmates in Seminole
County to help raise these beneficial insects; their work will be an
essential part of our program to control this noxious weed."

Taylor said the guidance and instruction offered by UF enhances the
existing
inmate agricultural program at the Seminole County facility, and the new
biocontrol program has the potential to generate revenue that will benefit
inmates and support additional training programs.

"If this USDA pilot project is successful, it could develop into a system
where inmates could help society by reducing reliance on pesticides and
save
tax payers millions of dollars in the fight against new invasive pests,"
Osborne said.