One night while watching the CBC, Michael Short (Cert ’95) learned about a concept that would change his life forever.

The expert on the program was the late Linda Edwards, a researcher in Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Her work focused on decreasing pesticide use on farms through the introduction of beneficial insects to reduce harmful insect populations.

At the time, Michael was working in construction and wanted a career change but wasn’t quite sure what that might be. When he heard the interview, something clicked.

“The hairs on the back of my neck tingled,” says Michael, “and I thought ‘that’s it’.”

He followed that spark to UFV. He enrolled in the IPM certification program as a mature student. Almost immediately, he fell in love with the course material and dove in. During his time in IPM he was mentored by instructors like Tom Bauman and Dr. Deborah Henderson. He even had the opportunity to meet Linda, who visited as a guest speaker.

“I couldn’t have made a better move,” says Michael. “I was all in on the subject matter, and I knew that this is what I wanted to do.”

After graduating from UFV, Michael moved to Ontario and started his own business in IPM, Eco Habitat Agri Services.

Even though IPM has been around a long time, the field focuses primarily on supporting the growth of greenhouse vegetables. Michael decided that he wanted to work with ornamental plants. He quickly learned there were no other businesses filling that niche.

Michael found that as he visited new client greenhouses, growers would have cabinets full of chemicals and they often sprayed with pesticides as much as twice a week.

He took notes regarding current practices, and then slowed down pesticide use before introducing beneficial insects.

“There are some things in those days you could spray and in eight months, you couldn’t release beneficial insects into your crop due to persistent pesticide residues,” says Michael.

Since beginning his company 27 years ago, Michael’s business has boomed. The more he worked in the field, reducing the use of pesticides, the more he felt he was making a difference. Hearing stories from farmers about how bad pesticide use was in the past served as motivation to continue.

“If you were to open a chemical cabinet in a greenhouse today,” says Michael. “They may have one bottle sitting there, and it’s probably something I recommended last week. But when I would first go in there’d be forty years of stuff in those cabinets.”

 

A new kind of old bug

Today, Michael is pioneering a new aspect of his business. Many of the beneficial insects currently in use, such as parasitic wasps that attack aphids and the like, are raised in a lab. However, as generations of lab-raised insects are produced, they become lazy.

What was needed was a living ecosystem simulation.

“The wasps are supposed to hover in, come up to an aphid, jab them, and then fly on down next for the jab. That’s how it was when I first started,” explains Michael. “Now they walk between the aphids. I’ve seen an aphid flick one away with its back legs.”

Michael recognized that the lazy, lab-raised insects were doing the same thing in greenhouses.

The solution? The reintroduction of wild insects into the lab environment.

“We have a test,” says Michael. “The wasp has wings, it’s supposed to fly but it’s walking. If I can take my thumb and squish them, I shouldn’t be able to do that. But when we get native ones, they come in very aggressive. If you get within a foot of it with your thumb, they take off.”

Since Michael has been in the industry of ornamentals for so long, he has found himself in the position to test out insect batches with wild insects. He quotes Dr. David Gillespie – an award-winning entomologist from Agassiz – for his discussion around introducing wild insects to reinvigorate lab raised ones.

“We have to infuse wild into their colonies in order for this to be sustainable,” says Michael. “And David wrote that decades ago.”

Just before COVID, Michael had been developing a strong batch of insects, but the pandemic put a halt to his work. He is now rebuilding his efforts and making headway.

He also hopes to develop strategic partnerships with companies that work the same field but with a different skillset.

Michael hopes to hand the business down to his youngest son, Griffin, who has taken up an interest in the field.

“He absorbed what I had to say, so I put him on my training program to see how he did,” says Michael. “And our customers love him.”