Stop insect development in its tracks

Every greenhouse must control pests to keep their plants protected. Typically, controlling pests usually means employing pesticides and insecticides. But what does a grower do when pesticides aren’t enough, and insects keep coming back? One option is to use Enstar® AQ Insect Growth Regulator from Central Life Sciences.

If pest populations keep coming back, it could be because the replacement populations aren’t being dealt with effectively. “That’s where insect growth regulators come in,” says Rodney A. Morrow, regional sales manager of specialty products at Central Life Sciences. “They interrupt the insect during its developmental process. They stop them from maturing right in their tracks.”

“We’re trying to offer a cost-effective, high-performance solution that’s designed to limit and reduce the replacement pest population in the greenhouse and prevent them from rebounding while eliminating and preventing insect resistance,” Morrow says. “All this while protecting beneficial insects, enhancing rotation practices and decreasing costs.”

Enstar AQ Insect Growth Regulator seeks to achieve this goal while decreasing house down time to four hours and decreasing worker exposure after each application. Limiting or decreasing the replacement population results in fewer pesticide application overall. This means less production downtime, less worker exposure, a decrease in operation costs and increased plant health.

“They can’t let it get to that point because the cost of shutting those businesses down while they try to fog and treat and spray is very costly,” Morrow explains. “So, we want to really focus on limiting that replacement population before they become a problem in the first place.”The recommended plan of attack is to use Enstar AQ Insect Growth Regulator in conjunction with a pesticide or insecticide with each product rotation, so you can eliminate the target pests before they can become a problem in the greenhouse: the pesticide or insecticide will kill any adult pests while Enstar AQ Insect Growth Regulator will stop the developing ones. By attacking both stages of pests in the greenhouse and covering all the bases, Morrow says growers will “be able to use fewer insecticides, improve those they do use and break insect resistance cycles before they begin.”

“There’s no other solution that I know of out there that truly limits or has an impact on that replacement population,” Morrow says. “Where else can you find a water based, non-phytotoxic product that can have such a great impact on your bottom-line production cost?”

“This product is a water-based tank mix and can be drenched, fogged, sprayed or put in the mister systems,” Morrow adds. “It’s not something that’s complicated to use.” However, if a grower does need help using Enstar AQ Insect Growth Regulator or has any questions about the product, Morrow says they can contact him or go to centralgrower.com and visit the “Contact Us” section of the website where they can submit their problems, questions or requests for assistance, and someone on the Central Life team will get back to them.

“One of us is always available,” Morrow says. “My motto is ‘If you’re working, I’m working.’ I don’t care if it’s dark, I don’t care if it’s Saturday or Sunday or a holiday. If you’re working and you need help, you call me, and I will get back with you or answer that phone.”