A Canadian company is using bees in a revolutionary new way to develop a natural pesticide solution. Bee Vectoring Technologies, according to their website, is on a mission to provide “a complete system that delivers required pathogen controls and compounds daily, to facilitate higher quality crops.”
The company has developed an inoculum dispenser system, containing the inoculant crop control, Vectorite, which is incorporated into the lid of commercial bumblebee hives. As bees leave the hive, they pick up the product and, naturally, distribute the crop control to flowering plants.
The company has just announced a major development regarding their crop inoculation system that is the buzz of both the financial and agricultural worlds. Through independently verified results, US-based strawberry growers that utilized BVT products, in both indoor and outdoor trials, saw the following improvements to plant quality: a savings of 15 fungicide sprayings at each site and a 30+% higher fruit yield than those treated with fungicide.
"Strawberries are in the initial five targeted crops BVT is concentrating on,” said Michael Collinson, CEO of Bee Vectoring. “Although the results from these trials were remarkable, they were not unexpected as we have seen similar results in prior sites. The BVT mode of action has evolved over millions of years and its by-products are healthier stronger plants, larger, better quality fruit and an absence of major diseases which translates typically into longer shelf life. We are hopeful that growers and consumers will benefit from an environmentally friendly and sustainable system that will assist in producing food to consumer demands.”
Bee Vectoring plans to begin strawberry trials in Spain, Holland and Germany during Spring 2016.
