NATURAL PEST CONTROL FOR HOME GARDENS & LAWNS, Vol. II, #1

This is a newsletter with practical suggestions. It will be updated often. Please revisit it.

February 2004

Consumer Biocontrol Products:  An Opportunity for Your Garden Center?

Have you considered that there are a growing number of homeowners who want to buy products for the biological control of pest insects in their lawns and gardens?  Such products include adult ladybugs, praying mantis egg cases, and beneficial insect parasitic nematodes.  If you have a garden center and want to try biocontrol products for consumers, these are good choices, beneficials many consumers will understand and buy.

Ladybugs (Fig. 1) are best sold as adult insects that were collected overwintering in California.  These can directly eat aphids and other soft-bodied pest insects.  With fairly large pest populations the adults will also lay eggs that hatch into voracious predators of more pests.  Praying mantises (Fig. 2) are sold as the egg cases containing hundreds of viable eggs.  Under warm conditions in the spring these hatch into miniature mantises, which feed on a wide variety of pest insects and mature into 3-4 inch adults by late summer.  Beneficial nematodes (Fig.3) are sold as microscopic infective juveniles that search in soil or cryptic environments such as boreholes for pest insects.  The juvenile form is very hardy and can survive for months in soil until it finds a host.  When a pest host is found, they quickly invade, kill, and reproduce in the host.

Fig. 1. Domestic ladybug, Hypodaimia convergens(lt) with packaged product (rt).  The adult ladybugs move around within the package and can attract much attention.		Fig. 2. Praying mantis (lt) with packaged praying mantis egg cases  ( rt).

Ladybugs are probably the most familiar and well-accepted beneficials for consumers. These are unique products that might be only directly available in your garden center.  Rarely are they seen in the garden centers of national discount chains.  The discount chains will sell chemical pesticides in greater variety than you might be able and probably cheaper.  But you can draw people if you carry unique products like those above.  Also, a living product like ladybugs has a “cute” appeal that many consumers like.

All three of the above products do present special concerns though.   There are tricks to marketing them.    They are perishable and should be refrigerated at 38 F.  That means storing most of your inventory of ladybugs and praying mantises in, for example, an old refrigerator in back.  Water a few packs and display in a high traffic area.  These will sell fast, and then can be replaced with refrigerated inventory.  Nematode inner containers should stay refrigerated. Display the outer box, and then reunite box and container when sold.

Selling beneficials also requires some education of the purchaser regarding expectations.  No beneficial kills as quickly or completely as a chemical.  This should be made clear.    Nematodes are highly effective, but are not “cute.”   They can only be seen without a microscope.  If you want to see them yourself though, a 30X pocket scope is adequate.

Some Wholesale Sources:

In conclusion, consumer biological controls are, we believe, interesting products to help smaller garden centers to compete with discounters.  They are also unique products with high profit margins.  They do however require special care, marketing, and explaining.

Text copyright by Albert Pye, Ph.D., BioLogic Company http://www.biologicco.com/