Beneficial Insects at Your Cannabis Farm: What You Need to Know
At CULTA, we thrive on being environmentally friendly. In fact, we recently made pretty aggressive goals to become net carbon neutral by 2031. Sure, being eco-friendly includes the obvious things, like switching to LED lighting and generating energy from renewable sources. But did you know insects play a pretty important part in our sustainable farming practices? That is, as long as they’re beneficial.
So, what are beneficial insects, and how can you use them to improve sustainability at your own cannabis farm? Let us explain..
What are beneficial insects?
Beneficial insects may be a foreign concept to some farmers because, after all, why would you want to add insects to your crops, particularly when you spend so much time trying to keep them away? Well, because beneficial insects are special in that they work in multiple ways to create a better environment for cannabis plants (and fruit and vegetable crops, too!) In the next section, we’ll dig into how exactly they can help make your farm more sustainable.
How do they improve sustainability?
Beneficial insects naturally remove pests without the use of pesticides or chemicals, which is crucial for outdoor farms that are Clean Green Certified. In addition to naturally removing pests, they also nurture companion plants that will help your cannabis plants grow healthier and stronger. They can also help prevent the spread of disease and work as a preventative tool to keep pest outbreaks at bay. While they can be used to mitigate pests that already exist, many farmers find that beneficial insects work best as a preventative measure.
We use beneficial insects at our own outdoor campus in Cambridge, Maryland, which is home to over 3,000 cannabis plants. In 2020, we added two acres to our farm to keep up with the growing demand from our medical patients and, at this point, we decided to landscape beneficial native plants into the surrounding fields and pond. These native plants, in conjunction with beneficial insects, enable us to control pests naturally.
“Since we incorporated beneficial insects into our farm, we’ve been able to drastically cut back our organic IPM sprays while still preventing harmful pest from harming our crop,” said Tom Moylan, director of cultivation at CULTA. “It may seem like a small step on our sustainability journey, but it’s been a really impactful one.”
What are the best beneficial insects?
If you’re curious about incorporating beneficial insects into your own farm, we’ll discuss some of the most popular options below. Of course, it’s important to remember that this list is not exhaustive and that the best insects for your own farm will depend on a variety of factors, including the surrounding environment (climate, indoor vs outdoor) and the specific pests you’re trying to mitigate.
With that in mind, here are some common beneficial insects to consider:
Ladybugs - Ladybugs are one of the most beneficial insects for cannabis plants. They primarily prey on aphids which, as you know, are very common pests. They love aphids so much that they eat approximately 5,000 of them during their lifetime!
Hypoaspis miles - This species of predatory soil mite thrive on thrip larvae and pupae. They can also help control fungus gnats.
Orius insidiosus - As the name would imply, these bugs are extremely aggressive towards thrips. Unfortunately, they’re only useful during the summer because they require daylight and warmth.
Green lacewings - These pests love eating aphids and mealybugs, but they’re known to eat whiteflies and scale insects, too. Just be careful -- they’re known to bite humans, but it’s rare and their bites are non-toxic.
Praying mantis - The food of choice for praying mantis are aphids, whiteflies, moths, and mosquitos, making them a great addition to virtually any farm. Just make sure to keep them away from each other, as they can become cannibalistic.
Nematodes - While there are destructive nematodes with a well-deserved bad reputation, there are beneficial species, too. Steinernema feltiae is a species that can control fungus gnats, thrips, and 200 other species of flying and crawling insects.
Rove beetle - If you live in a particularly wet region of the United States (hello, fellow East Coasters!), you’re probably familiar with fungus gnats. Rove beetles feed on these gnats and will fly through your farm looking for a snack. Sadly, they only live for a few weeks so you’ll have to constantly add them to your farm.
Dragon flies - Adult dragon flies feed on mosquitoes, gnats, flies, swarming ants, swarming termites, and just about any flying insect that’s small enough for them to catch.
Potter wasps - These parasitic wasps are about the size of a grain of sand and collect caterpillars to feed their young. From our experience, they do a lot of damage!
Trichogramma - These parasitic wasps are smaller than potter wasps, and lay their eggs inside or on the caterpillar which paralyzes them. Like the potter wasps, they're an effective way to control pests.
Predatory mites - We foliar spray our plants with predatory mites, like Swirki and Spical mites, which help keep the plants defenses up for anything that may be attacking the leaves.
As previously mentioned, beneficial insects work well in conjunction with companion plants. At CULTA, we do a lot of beneficial planting which can be used to attract beneficial insects and keep harmful insects away. The plants and insects attract birds which further continues the cycle.
Some of the companion plants we use at our own farm include petunias, dill, marigold, zinnias, sunflowers, chamomile, mint, rosemary, lavender, and snapdragons, but, again, the specific beneficial plants you’ll want to use depend on the type of beneficial insect you’re trying to attract and keep happy.
Biodiversity is crucial
At the end of the day, beneficial insects will only thrive at your farm if they’re happy in their environment. The more life there is on your farm -- whether it’s companion plants, insects, bees, lakes, or ponds -- the happier and healthier your cannabis plants will be. And at the end of the day, isn’t that the ultimate goal? Learn more about CULTA’s growing process, including how we grow our indoor and outdoor cannabis, here.
*Medical cannabis is for certified/qualifying patients only. Must be at least 18 years old to view content.
