James Hill is breeding billions of tiny blind predatory mites that are packed on ice and posted to strawberry farms in the battle against destructive sap-sucking insects.
As concern over chemical use in food production grows and insect species become more resistant to poisons, farmers are turning to nature for solutions to pests that can cripple crop production.
Once they have exterminated the pests they turn on their own eggs and larvae, posing no threat to other insects."In years gone by, we had to rotate different insecticides to control the two-spotted mite and you'd get a higher percentage of pests that were resistant," he said. "The change has been quite radical, what was once considered a cottage industry for small organic and family farms has now become the backbone for pest management in conventional agriculture."Bugs for Bugs is one of only a handful of commercial suppliers of beneficial insects in Australia.
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