Brazil recently passed the United States as the largest world consumer of pesticides. The $7 billion market is primarily used on two of Brazil’s largest cash crops – soybeans and sugarcane.
With the effectiveness of this massive chemical usage diminishing, Brazil has moved to phase out the most toxic pesticides and replace them with a natural solution that works:
Wasps!
Wasps are now the good guys in the attempt to green agribusiness giants with operations in Brazil such as Royal Dutch Shell, a worldwide producer of sugarcane.
The company Bug Agentes Biologicos (Bug) has figured out a way to mass produce wasps that are actually sprayed via airplane onto crops to combat the larvae and stinkbugs that threaten sugarcane and soybean plants.
Francisco Jardim, a Brazilian venture capitalist who has invested in Bug and sits on its board, said:
“We can liberate the insects in the right dose, at the right speed, and with the right protection so they can be effective.”
By “protection”, Jardim is referring to the need for wasp wings to be guarded and preserved until they grow big enough for flying. If the wings are not adequately protected, wasps become the target of ants who will use them for food.
Wasp spraying is a preventative measure for farmers that eliminates the eggs of pests which precludes damaging infestations which would then require heavy pesticide spraying.
Currently, wasp spraying via Bug Agentes Biologicos is the only alternative approved by the Brazilian Agricultural, Health, and Environmental Ministries. The company is at 100% capacity and plans to double the acreage it covers by the end of 2012.
The only discouraging news about this promising new green technology is that Bug favors selling to Brazil’s agribusiness instead of small organic farmers.
Wasps Not So Great for Home Use
While wasps may be useful as a natural alternative to pesticides in industry, at home is another story. Some homeowners with a decent sized backyard are finding that one of the benefits of backyard chickens is that they reduce the wasp population tremendously!
What is good for soybean and sugarcane production is not necessarily beneficial for the home garden!
Source: A Natural Alternative to Harmful Agricultural Pesticides, FastCompany, March 2012
Yes, I am like the other reader who thought that you were going to tell us how to get rid of the wasps. I was stung recently in 2 places and wow did they take along time to heal.
I thought so, too! There are way too many wasps nests around the outside of my chicken coop, and it makes me afraid to go near… oh, and the spiders… not sure which scares me more. 🙁 As much as I know how important they are, they still terrify me!
But anyway, this was still an interesting post. At least Brazil is making an effort to move in a safer direction.
I was stung myself only recently and wrote a post on how to help it heal quickly. Do a search at the top of the blog using the words wasp allergic reaction.
Snakes and spiders have never bothered me but I’ll hurt me and you over a wast bug!
This year I witnessed a red wasp chowing down on the little green worms munching my lettuce and I immediately called for a cessation of hostilities against them. We usually go to great lengths to get them to move out. But now that I see their work in the garden, I’m a fan.
I’m with you .. I love wasps and bees etc. They are great to have around your garden no doubt. I’ve been stung so many times I’ve lost count, but I don’t mind them at all.
Interesting! And yes does anyone have a non-chemical way to kill them off!!! We have used spray foam but, yeah! VOC’s and fumes! I have noticed if you fill the hole or where ever they are nesting they do not move it! They are lazy leaches! And find an easier place to build nests! But it’s hard to not get stung!! Pipes are a favorite!!! Great info! Amazing we have been passed up in the chemical world!!!
Cari
Parasitic wasps do wonders, too.
I thought you were going to tell us how to get rid of wasps. I have wasps all around the outside of my house. I’ve been stung in the face. My daughter was stung on her hand. And, a neighborhood was stung, as well.
I need them to quit stinging us!!
Except my husband loathes wasps and is constantly trying to figure out how to get rid of them….
I live in Manitoba. They successively used an insect to kill rampant Purple Loosestrife that was taking over……there are lots of benign types of wasps that don’t sting or aren’t aggressive.
i agree. one got into my house the other day. i was terrified.
This sounds great… but absolutely terrifying.