Bugging Out Over Farming
With the start of spring this past week, our attention is turning more towards the outdoors including gardening, whether it’s planting new plants or figuring out how to combat the coming onslaught of weeds and potential threats to our gardens and plants.
Here’s our founder and the brave group of insect farm expeditioners who visited Rincon-Vitova Insectaries.
Likewise, farmers’ attentions are shifting away from the dormancy of winter and towards the excitement, and work, associated with plant growth and production.
We here are Vero support only those wineries that farm their land and vineyards, as well as olive trees to make extra virgin olive oil. Hence we care about how all of the wine and EVOO we curate are farmed, seeking only those that are made in the most sustainable way as possible. Most of them practice regenerative agriculture as well as biodynamic farming methods which we have written about in the past.
Some of you may also know that Vero’s headquarters are in Ventura California, which has an important agriculture footprint, producing fruit and vegetables that are sold across the USA. So when our founder, Sheila Donohue, was at a local neighborhood community meeting in Ventura, and heard someone speaking about regenerative farming, her ears immediately perked up. That’s when she met Ron Whitehurst, a Pest Control Advisor, and spokesperson for Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, an insect farm in Ventura founded by his wife’s father, Everett Dietrick. Sheila never met someone who worked at an insect farm, in fact, even the concept sounded a bit strange: after all, aren’t all insects pests?
She found out through Ron that it’s NOT the case, hence why his father-in-law started his insect farm.
With her curiosity piqued, she set off to Ron’s insect farm, along with others who were just as curious as she was. Let’s find out what they learned.
Jan Dietrick and Ron Whitehurst feel fortunate to be partners promoting biological control by natural enemies with Rincon-Vitova Insectaries.
Integrated Pest Management
What drove Everett Dietrick to start Rincon-Vitova Insectaries?
Turns out, he was a researcher with many papers written about farming and insects. One of his papers, from back in 1969, talked about Integrated Pest Management. According to the EPA, “Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices. IPM programs use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment.”
In Mr. Dietrick’s paper, he laid out the 5 principles to IPM which are:
Avoiding disruptive pesticides,
Building beneficial refuge,
Monitoring insects,
Developing cultural practices,
Releasing beneficial organisms.
He then explains what is involved in putting into effect these principles which, surprisingly, or not, refer to practices which fall under regenerative agriculture, as well as biodynamic farming like not using pesticides and applying cover crops. Ultimately, these principles outlined by Mr. Dietrick is about relying on nature to control pests and other threats. What he wrote back in 1969 essentially goes against modern conventional farming practices. Fortunately, nowadays, the tide is turning against chemical based farming and is going “back to” healthy farming practices, like those embraced by regenerative farming.
But, to have written a paper like this back in the 60’s shows that he was a forward thinker, and courageous as well: consider that conventional farming, which relies on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, and other practices with the goal to control “Mother Nature” so to eek out the highest amount of production from the land, was all the rage back in the 60’s. Instead, Dietrick’s approach, which, thankfully, have been passed on and continues to be carried out by his daughter Jan, and her husband, Ron, takes the opposite approach: which is to give the control back to Mother Nature.
Walking down fly alley at this insect farm.
Visiting the Insect Farm
We got a tour of Rincon-Vitova Insectaries with the General Manager, Krya Ankenbruck. Kyra admits to loving bugs, and while at Purdue University she sought out a company for a summer internship which grows and sells bugs. She was also trying to get exposed to “chemical free” entomology practices, thus distancing herself from “school taught” entomology programs which were practically sponsored by chemical companies. After 18 years with Rincon-Vitova, she is still committed to her passion and initial goal of using insects in a smart and eco-friendly way to combat pests.
Rincon-Vitova’s founder, Everett Dietrick, transferred his insect farm in the 70’s to its current location which were dormitory-like cottages for oil industry workers. They have kept the original buildings, since during each phase of insect cultivation you want to have a controlled environment to produce specific results without interference from other pests, etc. In fact, Rincon-Vitova Insectaries uses the plural form of insectary since each room is its own place, i.e., laboratory, for rearing a specific insect during a certain phase of its development.
Their clients are anyone who want to use bugs instead of poisons in farming and other outdoor activities, from companies to individuals. They get calls from people with home gardens to agricultural businesses, even horse farms, wanting to use predatory insects to combat pests.
Rincon-Vitova focuses on 2 primary insect cultivation:
Producing beetles that become lacewings that eat plant pests like scale insects and aphids,
Producing parasite wasps that eat pesky flies.
We got a tour of both of these growing and cultivation methods.
Kyra, GM of Rincon-Vitkova, showing the room where lacewing beetles are being growing.
Combatting Plant Pests
The first insectary we entered was full of squash which had these teeny-tiny beetles on them. The room was warm and smelled like a strong cheese. It was definitely an unusual environment to be in. Kyra pointed out various beetles which were being cultivated to become lacewing predators to scale insects and other plant pests. Think of lacewings as “good bugs” like ladybugs. The beetles live on squash and when they are ready to collect, they hand aspirate them one by one.
Later, Ron showed up and showed us adult lacewings and a honeycomb looking piece of cardboard where each lacewing will lay its eggs.
Fly maggots turning into cocoons where wasps will lay their eggs.
Natural Fly Control
After touring the beetle room, we took a walk down “fly alley” consisting of a series of rooms, from which you enter from the “alley” which ultimately are used to produce a gnat-like looking wasp which uses fly pupae, or cocoons, to lay their eggs, thus preventing flies within the cocoon to reach adulthood. In order to do this, the insect farm needs to first cultivate the flies.
So the first fly control room had adult flies which laid their eggs. This room was super creepy because of the immense amount of flies in each screened-in box. In fact, Krya invited us to put our hand into a box which was filled with flies. We had a nurse as part of our group visiting who evidently was used to being in squeamish situations and was the first to volunteer to stick her hand in.
Then, once the eggs are laid, they place a large amount in a box filled with food and the eggs hatch to become larvae, or maggots. Seeing this was a throwback to school when children cultivated mealworms in biology class. The box didn’t seem to have much going on, yet, when you placed your hand under the box it was hot, indicating the high level of movement the maggots were doing.
After 5 days in the box, the insect farm then floods the box to force the maggots out of the box, where they fall to a tray underneath which collects most of the maggots (we had to be careful since a lot of the larvae miss the try and land on the ground, wriggling all around the floor!)
Then the maggots get transferred to another room where after several days they become cocoons, which then are used by the wasps to lay their eggs.
The wasps themselves have separate rooms to be cultivated through each phase of their life, starting with the pupae, or fly cocoon which was impregnated by the wasp, all the way to their adult form.
Natural All The Way
As Ron explained, the goal of Rincon-Vitova is to become part of local ecology, providing a natural control which allows nature to balance itself out without the use of chemicals.
We embrace this approach, as well as our producers, who are small batch artisans, farming their own land in a sustainable way. Many Vero Producers farm using regenerative agriculture techniques as well as biodynamic farming practices, which we have touched up in this article. They include some like Canalino, Case Corini, Col del Balt, Frignano, Ivaldi, La Maliosa, Quercia Scarlatta, Thaya, Zamichele, and Zanon. Check out all of our wines made with regenerative agriculture principles here. By purchasing their small production wines and tasting the fruits of their labor, you’re doing your part to help mitigate climate change and helping the earth restore its precious assets.
We exist to allow all Americans, businesses and consumers, across the US to experience the pleasure of a farm to glass wine, and a really good olive oil too. How can you get your hands on the hidden gems we forage for?
If you are a distributor reach out to us introduce our highly curated portfolio of one of a kind small production wines to your state.
We sell to wine stores and restaurants in certain states - contact us to learn more.
If our farm crafted natural wines and olive oils are not in your local shop or restaurant, buy wine online here, and we’ll ship it to you, including wine gifts.
We also have an award winning wine club for true wine explorers that are seeking to continually discover unique, sustainable and authentic small production wines they never had. These are wines selected by our sommeliers and curated for each box.
We do corporate gifts and sommelier guided wine tastings. Email us and we’ll tailor unique and sustainable corporate gift ideas.
