Beneficial insects aid coastal avocado & lemon production
Associates Insectary
from Santa Paula, California is a grower-owned cooperative that provides insects and pest control advisors to assist growers with integrated pest management strategies in the coastal systems. Insects are also shipped globally for similar IPM strategies.
Each year, in few unassuming buildings in Santa Paula, California, over 500 million beneficial insects are reared to beat back citrus mealybug infestations that threatened to wipe out the local citrus industry. The work that goes with these predators and tiny parasites has helped sustain commercial citrus in the region.
Brett Chandler, president, and general manager of Associates Insectary, says the cooperative has been successful in rearing Cryptolaemus montrouzieri beetles, a generalist predatory beetle, to help control the citrus mealybug and other insects in coastal lemons and avocados for about a century.
Todd Fitchette
Mealybug destroyer beetle larvae feed on mealybugs on potato plants at Associates Insectary in Santa Paula, Calif. The insectary rears beneficial insects used by local farmers and customers worldwide in integrated pest management programs. Each year over 500 million beneficial insects are reared from a nearly century-old facility.
Suggested Event
Jun 15, 2021 to Jun 17, 2021
Science and a bit of art is practiced from a set of unassuming buildings in a Santa Paula, Calif. neighborhood.
Each year over 500 million beneficial insects are reared from facilities constructed nearly 100 years ago to beat back citrus mealybug infestations that threatened to wipe out the local citrus industry. The work that goes with these predators and tiny parasites has helped sustain commercial citrus in the region.