{"id":59764,"date":"2015-08-24T09:44:15","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T01:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=59764"},"modified":"2025-01-08T17:00:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T22:00:17","slug":"natural-pest-control-business-gets-boost-from-medical-cannabis-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/08\/24\/natural-pest-control-business-gets-boost-from-medical-cannabis-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Natural pest control business gets boost from medical cannabis industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Photo<\/a>
(Photo from Flickr\/Brett Levin<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2013 When Sarah Stuive first got into the natural pest control business \u2013 which uses predatory insects, or \u201cgood bugs,\u201d to weed out pests \u2013 she never expected to be working with cannabis plants.<\/p>\n

But thanks to Health Canada regulations that limit the use of chemical pesticides on medical marijuana in order to make sure the plants are safe for consumption, the biological control specialist says she\u2019s seeing an uptick in business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen a lot of growth in demand since the start of the cannabis industry,\u201d said Stuive, who works for Global Horticultural and also provides her services to vegetable farmers and plant growers. \u201cIt\u2019s a new alternative to chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although certain chemical pesticides are permitted on medical cannabis \u2013 Health Canada currently has a list of seven products that have been approved for use \u2013 some producers prefer to avoid chemical sprays, which can leave residue on the plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecifically in this industry, it\u2019s very important not to apply chemicals topically, because when you burn the plant for the medicinal compounds, any residual product that\u2019s left on the leaves as a resin, you\u2019ll also be burning that and inhaling it,\u201d says Emily Moeller, the grow and production manager at Bedrocan Cannabis Corp.<\/p>\n

Street marijuana produced in illegal grow-ops tends to be riddled with such chemicals, according to Moeller.<\/p>\n

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That can be particularly harmful for people whose immune systems are compromised, says Cam Battley, Bedrocan\u2019s vice-president of communications.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe product we produce is being used by patients with a variety of health conditions,\u201d Battley said in an interview at the company\u2019s production facility east of Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them are immuno-compromised; they have HIV\/AIDS. Some of them are using medical cannabis to manage the symptoms associated with chemotherapy. For people in these conditions, for people with chronic illnesses, it\u2019s better not to have any residue at all on our product.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are a number of pests that can feed on cannabis crops which specialists like Stuive are on the lookout for, including fungus gnats, shore flies, thrips and spider mites.<\/p>\n

At Bedrocan, Stuive \u2013 whose job involves administering the pest control and monitoring its effectiveness \u2013 uses three kinds of beneficial insects to keep pest populations in check.<\/p>\n

Hypoaspis miles is a tiny mite that lives in the soil and preys on fungus gnats, shore flies and thrips. Stuive administers it by sprinkling peat moss containing the mite onto the soil in which the cannabis plants are growing.<\/p>\n

Microscopic round worms called nematodes are applied through the water system and will eat the eggs of fungus nuts that have been laid in the root ball of the plant.<\/p>\n

And amblyseius swirskii, a predator that lives on the leaves of the plant, feeds on thrips, white flies and spider mites. It\u2019s often contained in sachets that are either stuck into the ground on sticks or hung on the plant with a string.<\/p>\n

Biological pest control can be costlier up front than using chemical sprays, says Moeller, but in the long run producers who use this strategy could end up saving money.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t have to throw entire crops out because they\u2019re contaminated,\u201d Moeller says.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 When Sarah Stuive first got into the natural pest control business \u2013 which uses predatory insects, or \u201cgood …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":59765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-59764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-original","mauthors-alexandra-posadzki","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281137,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59764\/revisions\/281137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}