Organic Researcher Looks to Natural Landscape As Aid to Non-toxic Pest Control

By Ted Quaday OFRF
Communications Director

With the aid of determined researchers, organic farmers are meticulously elevating pest management to a non-toxic art form. One approach with broad appeal among organic farmers involves coaxing what one might think of as “good” bugs to come to the farm to attack the “bad” bugs that eat crops.

Organic farming researcher Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer calls it natural pest control achieved without the use of toxic pesticides.

“This is a natural and self-sustaining form of pest control that you don’t have to keep adding to every year; that you don’t have to pay for,” says Chaplin-Kramer. In 2008, the researcher received an $8,770 OFRF grant to test some of her ideas.

“In the past, it (natural pest control) has often meant replenishing beneficial insects to eat your pests, but more and more now, we’re starting to capitalize on the beneficial insects that already exist and figure out how to enhance those populations around the farm,” Chaplin-Kramer explains.

In her research, Chaplin-Kramer focused on comparing the insect harboring capabilities of the natural landscape around farms with those same capabilities in habitat planted by the farmers themselves. 

“In general, what I found is that diversity at both scales, at the on-farm and landscape scales definitely improved populations of beneficial insects, but that didn’t always translate into pest control benefit,” says Chaplin-Kramer. 

Sometimes it was a matter of timing: beneficials might arrive too late to adequately control pests. Sometimes naturally occurring vegetation housed lots of pest insects but was unappealing to beneficials. Chaplin-Kramer says some wild grassland areas have this characteristic. 

Chaplin-Kramer conducted her research on 19 farms in Central California over several growing seasons. She says organic farmers looking to employ natural landscapes and on-farm habitat as pest control measures should ensure plant diversity with plenty of vegetation capable of attracting beneficials.

A Minnesota native, Chaplin-Kramer recently completed her doctoral studies in environmental science, policy and management at UC-Berkeley. She says she hopes to continue her organic farming research, adding that she and her husband are now talking about someday launching their own farming operation.

learn more about Chaplin-Kramer’s research.