I-Corps: Local Ladybugs: An Effective, Environmentally Sound Pest Management Alternative

拟议的i-Corps项目将探索饲养和销售本土瓢虫(也称为瓢虫和瓢虫)的商业可行性，为园丁和农民提供一种替代工具，以控制吃掉他们植物的害虫。瓢虫是能够控制这些害虫的主要昆虫群之一。目前，农民和园丁购买从加利福尼亚州山区收集的活瓢虫。每年有超过30亿只甲虫以大约300万美元的价格出售，人们对杀虫剂的日益担忧以及有机农业部门的快速增长预计将使生物防治变得越来越有吸引力。一种新产品能够成功打入生物防治市场的瓢虫部分有几个原因，包括：1)释放的聚集甲虫飞走了，不能控制害虫；2)从加利福尼亚州的一个小区域收集的聚集甲虫可能会在全国传播疾病[疾病的传播是蜜蜂减少的主要理论]；以及3)加州的干旱正在降低供应和价格。显然，这个市场寻找一种实际表现良好的替代品的时机已经成熟。这个团队将提供的替代瓢虫将更有效(正如当地适应甲虫一直被证明的那样)，它们以前是常见的本土物种，最近变得稀少，迫切需要保护。拟议的方法将生产实验室饲养的本土瓢虫，作为替代田间采集的甲虫或杀虫剂，以抑制害虫。一段时间以来，人们普遍认为，目前可用的瓢虫是无效的，并具有潜在的致命环境后果，但通过饲养(而不是收集)提供替代物种的尝试失败了。利用拟议的饲养技术，该团队预计生产出的甲虫在抑制虫害方面将远远超过目前销售的产品，而不会对环境造成负面影响，并可以合理地预期从这些递增的好处中获得溢价。该团队目前每周生产100只S甲虫，并有可能每周生产10只1000只甲虫。更大的有效性、可获得性和积极的环境影响应该会吸引许多现有和新的消费者使用建议的产品。关心环境的农民和园丁已经联系了迷失瓢虫项目(一个在全国有数千人参与的公民科学项目)，寻找汇聚的瓢虫的替代品来源。此外，对瓢虫多样性和保护感兴趣的大型土地所有者已经联系了希望在他们的土地上释放受威胁的原住民的团队，表明除了抑制虫害之外，还可能有一个“绿色瓢虫”市场。

The proposed I-Corps project will explore the commercial feasibility of raising and selling native lady beetles (also known as ladybugs and ladybird beetles) to provide an alternative tool for gardeners and farmers to control the insect pests that eat their plants. Ladybeetles are one of the main groups of insects that can control these pests. Currently, farmers and gardeners purchase live lady beetles which have been collected from mountains in California. Over 3 billion beetles are sold annually for approximately $3 million and increasing concerns about pesticides and the rapid growth of the organic agriculture sector are expected to make biological controls increasingly attractive. There are several reasons why a new product could successfully break into the lady beetle portion of the biological control market including; 1)released convergent lady beetles fly away and do not control pests, 2)convergent lady beetles collected from one small area in California might spread disease across the country [the spread of disease is a leading theory of whyhoney bees declined], and 3)drought in California which is driving availability down and price up. Clearly this market is ripe for analternative that actually performs. The alternative lady beetles this team will supply will be more effective (as locally adapted beetleshave consistently proven to be)and they are formerly common native species that have recently become rare and are in dire need of conservation.The proposed approach will be to produce laboratory-reared native lady beetles as an alternative field-collected beetles or pesticides for the suppression of insect pests. It has been generally accepted for some time that the currently available lady beetles are ineffective and had potentially necgative environmental consequences but attempts to make alternative species available through rearing (as opposed to collecting) have failed. With the proposed rearing technique, the team expects to produce beetles that would far outperform the currently sold product in terms of pest suppression, without the potential for negative environmental impacts, and could reasonably expect to command a premium for these incremental benefits. The team currently produces 100's of beetles per week and has the capacity to potentially produce 10s of 1000s per week. The greater efficacy, availability and positive environmental impact should lead many current and new consumers to the proposeded product. Environmentally concerned farmers and gardeners have already contacted the Lost Ladybug Project (a citizen science project with thousands of participants across the country) in search of sources of alternatives to the convergent lady beetle. In addition, large land-owners with interests in lady beetle diversity and conservation have contacted the team wishing to release threatened natives on their land indicating the potential for a "green lady beetle" market in addition to the pest suppression.