Palisade (Colorado) — A nursery of killer insects is hidden in an unassuming laboratory at the foothills.
Specialists like Kristi Gladem of the Palisade Insectary have raised exotic insects to help control invasive species of plants and bugs that threaten the nation’s food supply. The annual cost to the U.S. Department of Agriculture is $26 billion.
Gladem stated to CBS News that once they are released, they can spread naturally, increase their population, and provide control.
She explained that biological control is a way to restore the predator-prey balance in these invasive species. “When you reintroduce the predators of these invasive species from their original origin, you tap into a millennia-long evolutionary arms race in which these predators are better able to suppress the population of the pest than human beings.”
Palisade Insectary was created in 1940s when accidental imports of invasive insects began to happen. It is one of three facilities that provide pesticide-free eradication services to organic farmers and public lands.
Brant Harrison, a man who has grown organic peaches for over a decade, calls the approach “the savior” of the fruit-growing industry.
He told CBS News that there are many problems that can’t be solved organically.
Gladem stated that each killer bug is carefully studied in controlled fields for as long as 20 years to make sure they don’t prey upon other native species. Federal government monitors the results. The federal government has approved 27 control agents with an 85% success rate.
Gladem now focuses on two emerging threats: water gulping yellow thistle (which has invaded 25% California’s drought-stricken areas) and the ash borer (which is killing trees and fueling the West’s wildfires).
