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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 10, 2008
Contact: Betsy Lamb 607 254 8800; eml38@cornell.edu
by Mary Woodsen
Greenhouse good bugs lead to IPM award
Williamsville, NY: One day when Dave Mischler was 21 and working in his father's
business, Mischler's Florist, his three-year-old brother was playing in the greenhouse
and got into an open gallon of pesticide. "He got it all over his new shoes," Mischler
remembers. "He never had any ill effects, but it was a scary thing. I never liked
pesticides very much."
It opened
Mischler's eyes to the possibility that pesticides might not be the best way to
manage pests in a greenhouse run by a family with eight kids, located in a residential
neighborhood. He started on a path of reducing their use, motivated even more as
he and his wife Nancy took over the business and raised their own five children
among the clay pots. Also, he had opened his greenhouses to the public as a retail
garden center and was concerned about the health of his customers and workers.
"Getting away
from pesticides as much as possible certainly looked like the way to go," says Mischler.
"When they started talking beneficials I perked my ears up." Mischler attended workshops
hosted by the New York State Integrated Pest Management (NYS IPM) Program to learn
more and in 1989 began using beneficial insects to control pests.
These thumbnails link to hi-res photos. Please credit the NYS IPM Program.
Contact Mary Woodsen for more information.
Lately Mischler
and head grower Mark Yadon have been spreading the word to other commercial growers,
hosting grower tours and speaking at workshops and meetings. It's this dedication
that won Mischler and Yadon their "IPM in Excellence Award" from the NYS IPM Program.
"Our IPM program
is something we take pride in," says Yadon. "We're trying to be green and use anything
we can to not only reduce pesticides but also increase the value of the crop."
Mischler's
Florist, which Dave's father Frank started in 1944 in a suburb of Buffalo, grows
95 percent of everything they sell, including all the bedding plants for their retail
garden center, hanging baskets, mixed containers, holiday plants, and cut flowers
for their florist shop.
Mischler's
has a wide-ranging IPM program and they're proficient at using beneficial insects.
They control thrips and spider mites with predatory mites, use eggplants to monitor
the whitefly population in their poinsettias, use barley plants to host aphid parasites,
and monitor for other pests "constantly," says Yadon, who will take over the business
after Mischler retires this month.
They also discovered that they had developed a population of hunter flies in
the greenhouse. Once these helpful flies took hold, says Yadon, "our fungus gnat
and shorefly populations just dropped to really nothing, and we haven't had to treat
for those now for about three years." Yadon considers the hunter flies a resource
and protects them by using only sprays targeted to certain pests instead of broad-spectrum
sprays that could kill them.
"It's a pleasure
to look at a sticky card at Mischler's and find more natural enemies than pests
on the cards," says Carol Glenister, president of IPM Laboratories in Locke, NY.
"Recently, Mark discovered that he had overwintered whitefly parasites on hibiscus
and lantana plants and that these plants seemed to supply parasites for whitefly
control throughout the spring growing season to his entire greenhouse."
Brian Eshenaur,
NYS IPM specialist in ornamental crops, notes the sophisticated IPM system Dave
and Mark developed. "They're on the leading edge of biological control techniques,"
he says.
As Yadon takes
over the business, he's planning to continue the good work Mischler began. "I use
IPM because I want to save the environment for me, my family, and my workers," says
Yadon. "It fits into my style of growing."
Mishcler and
Yadon will receive the award on July 22, 2008, at the Cornell Floriculture Field
Day in Ithaca, NY. |
