Pesticide use in greenhouse and garden bugs me

From This is Cornwall:The summer greenhouse cropping season is over, the light levels are starting to drop and what a sorry sight my tomato crop is now.

It's time for the students to clean it all out ready for winter greens. This is always a sad time, as, in the name of crop hygiene, we have to get everything as clean as possible which means using chemicals.

But not only do these kill off any pests and diseases they also destroy all the bio-control introduced over the summer. Bio-control are specially selected beneficial insects brought into a greenhouse (or garden) to deal with aphids, spider mites or other pests.

This got me thinking about pesticide use elsewhere and the many ways we can attract and encourage nature to do the job for us.

Know your bug. Beneficial insects are divided into predators, parasitisers (sic) and pollinators. Predators, like ladybirds, hoverflies and ground beetles, eat pests. Larval ladybirds are just like teenagers. They eat everything in sight but are your best friend for aphid control. Parasitisers such as braconid and ichneumon wasps lay eggs inside the body of their prey as food for developing larvae. When the larvae matures, out it pops leaving its host an empty shell. It's a bug eat bug world in your garden, it really is.

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