This is a practitioner interview with Clem Cirelli, Jr. Mr. Cirelli is the manager of Summit Plants and Flowers, Inc. of Belle Meade, New Jersey, and he’s been at it for more than twenty-three years. Mr. Cirelli used to also be a regular writer for Interiorscape Magazine. He is quite well-known in that particular industry. So, without further ado, and with pleasure, we present…
Interview
The headings below are our questions; the blockquotes that follow are Clem Cirelli, Jr.’s responses.
How did you get started as a biocontrol practitioner?
“We had a contract at a local airport where we were battling mites on some very large Wodyetia bifurcata (foxtail palms) that were in areas where spraying any sort of chemical controls was out of the question. We tried some predator mites and got pretty good results. At around the same time, fungus gnats were plaguing us at some accounts we had taken over from other contractors, so we tried X-Gnat[1] and Gnatrol[2] and found that we could get a high level of control without traditional pesticide use. That’s when I became convinced that biocontrols would have a significant role in our interiorscape program.”
What sort of challenges have you experienced?
“People expect instant results with any pest control measure. That devolves from the ‘Raid™’ syndrome, wherein people are sold on the idea that you buy an insecticide spray, spray the pests, and in twenty minutes, they’re all gone. With fungus gnats especially, it takes some time to break the life cycle of the pest and stop seeing flying adult gnats in the treated spaces. People hate to wait.”
What was the biggest failure?
“I can’t really say there has been a big failure, although the aforementioned foxtail palms were always getting re-infested with mites despite repeated applications of predators. Probably the conditions were just too warm for the predators to keep up with the pest population’s growth.”
What was the biggest success?
“Probably the best success we have experienced is with controlling fungus gnats in some office buildings that seem to experience breakouts every spring and fall, coinciding with the start and end of the air conditioning season. The beneficial nematodes worked like a charm, and we have had almost no reinfestations since.”
What advice would you offer other just getting started?
“Don’t be unrealistic in your expectations. If you have a serious, heavy infestation of a difficult pest, you may not be able to do the job with beneficials alone. Try to put the beneficials in a position to succeed by always scouting and monitoring the plants so that you begin the treatment regimen before populations get out of control.”
Thank you, Mr. Cirelli. Your advice is sound and well-reasoned.
If you’re interested in being interviewed and have something to bring to the table or an interesting story to tell, please contact us.
Footnotes
[1] X-Gnat was a Steinernema feltiae nematode product. X-Gnat is no longer commercially available. We used to carry X-Gnat.
[2] Gnatrol is a liquid drench pesticide containing the H-14 strain of Bacillus israelensis. Based on the majority of the grower feedback we’ve heard — which unfortunately wasn’t very positive — we have never had an urge to carry it.
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: November 5th, 2007 at 11:07 am →
Thank you very much for the interview, Clem.