The Long Winded News TM

There are tiny superheroes that protect our tomato crop from destructive insect pests.  They are insects themselves, but rather than attacking our precious crop of delicious organic tomatoes, they feed on destructive insects. In the photo on the right you can see Dave Chapman, the owner and head grower at the farm, inspecting the plants.  The little white card hanging on the branch near his head contains the eggs of whiteflies (nasty little bugs that can suck the life out of tomato plants).  However, these eggs have been parasitized by Encarsia Formosa (tiny little wasp-like insects that are our warriors in our battle against the bad guys).  The Encarsia fly around and "sting" the whitefly eggs and lay their own inside.   Pretty soon, after devouring the larva inside, the young Encarsia pops out of the whitefly egg and heads out to find non-parasitized eggs that whiteflies lay on the underside of the leaves.  And so the cycle begins again until they run out of whitefly eggs.  We purchase these Encarsia cards from companies that specialize in breeding and producing methods of introducing these insects into the greenhouse environment.  Beneficial insects like Encarsia are very expensive, but they are one of the most vital contributors to organic growing because they act as a viable alternative to the chemical pesticides that are all to commonly used in conventional greenhouse growing.  So, the next time you are enjoying a delicious Long Wind Farm organic tomato, you can know that it is completely pure and free of chemical contamination, and the Encarsia and all his little friends are one of the reasons why. <Last page]   1  -  2  -  3   [Next page>