Key takeaways
- The Four P’s frame the whole transition: Planning, Prevention, Patience, Perseverance — in the order you’ll need them.
- Plan before you start. Research, identify problems you’re likely to hit, line up your biocontrol distributor.
- Biocontrol is prevention-first. Call your supplier when you plant, not when pests appear. “Most pesticides don’t prevent pests, they kill them.”
- Patience is required. Beneficials don’t kill on contact like chemicals — parasitoids especially need to acclimate, mate, lay eggs, then deliver results.
- Perseverance is the long game. Patience is short-term; perseverance is what gets you through year one’s lumps.
It’s sometimes helpful to have a mnemonic device to point you in a direction. So here’s one for transitioning to IPM — the Four P’s: Planning, Prevention, Patience, Perseverance. All have an equal share in importance; their order defines which one you’ll encounter or need first.
The Four P’s Framework
Each P has its own moment in the transition. Planning sets the table before you begin. Prevention — the operative word in biocontrol — is where you commit to acting before pests arrive. Patience carries you through the days and weeks while your beneficials acclimate and reproduce. And perseverance carries you through the years.
The Four P’s of IPM Success
- Planning — do the research, identify likely problems, get your ducks in a row before you start.
- Prevention — call your biocontrol supplier when you plant, not when pests appear.
- Patience — beneficials work on biology’s clock, not the chemical sprayer’s.
- Perseverance — the learning curve is real; shrug off the lumps and keep going.
Planning
The preceding pages in this section have hopefully done a fairly good job of illuminating the need for planning before you start. It would be no different if you were planning to start a horticultural or agricultural business and planned on using chemical pesticides as your sole means of pest control. Your best results will be had if you do a little research, identify beforehand the problems you may encounter, and, well, have your proverbial ducks in a row.
I know this often goes against the grain of human nature: we very often refer to the instruction book only when we discover pieces for the bicycle we got Billy for his birthday are left over — or when the computer just won’t work as it’s supposed to (and we often wait on hold for hours hoping 1-800 Tech Support will bail us out after only briefly leafing through the manual looking for a sometimes very obvious answer). Yet, we get by. We have for years.
The point isn’t in the project’s doability, it’s in the concept of making the whole thing easier and cheaper — oops, I mean less expensive. I do have to emphasize cheaper, though. Many growers pride themselves on their quality — it can bring in more greenbacks in exchange for the greenery which is sold. And I also have to emphasize less expensive (they are two different things, I guess). If the project’s less expensive you’ll be more profitable. To business, profitability is key. It’s a matter of survival.
Prevention
In the section on mind-set, the example was given of a customer telling a grower their plants were infested with little green bugs. That was supposed to reveal the difference between a person who did not employ the powers of observation, and a person who actually knew what was going on with their plants. The latter is more desirable if biocontrol and IPM are in your future (and even if they’re not).
Prevention needs a person with the proper mind-set, but it goes further. A conventional grower can have the right mind-set for the Green Methods and still not be practicing them. They can use their chemicals responsibly and rationally, target-spray minor infestations as needed, and be knowledgeable about their crops and the pests they encounter. But most chemicals shouldn’t be used preventively. In fact, some conventional growers who use pesticides on a regular preventive program are actually being irresponsible. Most pesticides don’t prevent pests — they kill them.
Why Biocontrol Rewards the Preventive Mind
With biocontrol and IPM, prevention is your ticket to success — especially if you have a budget. Call your biocontrol/IPM supplier as soon as you plant, even beforehand. You probably won’t have pests at that time, but that’s the whole point. With biocontrols and the whole mentality of the Green Methods, you can’t wait until the last minute. In fact, it’s best to act in the first minute.
Biocontrol agents, unlike chemical pesticides, will look for trouble. They’ll scour your crops. To them trouble is a good thing — at least when it’s our definition of trouble: pests. To the good bugs, your pests mean a future, one with food, security and general well-being for their offspring. And if they can’t find trouble right there in your plants, they’ll go outward and beyond hoping to score. If pests are not in your crop, but on its periphery, they’ll go to them.
Systemic chemicals can move through a plant; biocontrol agents can move through a field — let them. If they can’t locate pests it means they’re not there to find. Good bugs will die trying to be good bugs, literally.
Patience
When pests are found by you, the grower, for whatever reason (maybe you couldn’t use a preventive agent or just didn’t know), you should act quickly. Order the right controls right now. But don’t expect your biocontrols to act quickly. They usually don’t. They have to acclimate to their new surroundings, locate their food or their hosts, and then act — especially when dealing with parasitoids versus predators, which eat the pests outright. Parasitoids often have to mate first, then lay eggs in the pests before results can be expected. (This is why parasitoids are typically used preventively while predators are often used curatively — though not always.)
Patience is required. No more instant gratification of watching pests keel over and die as the poison touches them. Though sometimes some of the predatory insects will perform for you by eating some pests upon release. Sometimes.
Patience in the Learning Curve
Another area where patience has a role is in the general concept of learning the Green Methods. Remember the learning curve? Don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t get it all down pat in the first year — especially if you’re not a neophyte to growing, where unlearning is also a necessary part of the process.
Many growers, after their initial struggles of one or two years, have called the Green Methods “some of the most rewarding experiences they’ve earned.” They’ll tell you “the bugs work better than anything they’ve tried before,” and that they are “actually saving money.” The main thrust of biocontrol isn’t perpetuating sustainability or saving money — though those things always look good on paper — but it does pay. It pays, over time (after the struggles pass), monetarily and in many other ways. Some intangible, some tangible. Some may save lives. Just be patient. Good things come to those who wait.
Perseverance
Hand in hand with patience is perseverance. In other words: don’t get ticked off and frustrated if success doesn’t jump you in the street and cover you with kisses. Just shrug off the lumps the best you can, believe, and persevere. Keep going.
Patience is a short-term thing; perseverance is more of a long-term thing.
For over 30 years, Green Methods has been a leader in the production and application of beneficial organisms used in biological pest control and integrated pest management programs.