About retailer of garden pest control

	From Gardens Alive!: The Beginning Following is the story of the Gardens Alive! beginning from the founder and president of the company, Niles Kinerk: I started Gardens Alive!, then called Natural Gardening Research Center, in 1984, and set about finding products that I could sell and that I believed in. Our first catalogs focused on such now commonplace but then hard to find products as Bacillus thuringiensis (a bacteria that targets specific pests but is harmless to birds, worms, wildlife, and people), rotenone (a natural pesticide derived from the roots of a tropical plant) and, as the concept of using insects to fight insects began to gain popularity, the first beneficial insect species that Gardens Alive! still sells today. In 1988 we changed the name of the company to Gardens Alive! (try saying "Natural Gardening Research Center" three times fast), and we've continued to search out environmentally sound products that our customers couldn't find elsewhere. Products that work. I discovered, for example, that a product called M-One, a form of Bacillus thuringiensis that specifically targets the Colorado potato beetle, was available to large scale growers but not in quantities suitable for backyard gardeners. Well, it took a year of negotiations, we had to purchase quantities far above the means of our little catalog to move them quickly, and we ended up filling bottles ourselves, using a hand-pump to empty the manufacturer's 5-gallon buckets, but we were able to offer our customers one more environmentally sound product that worked. (M-One has since evolved into an improved product called M-Trak, which we sell to this day!) Sometime later I was attending a meeting of the Entomological Society of America. I was chatting with the head of the National Biocontrol Institute, when another gentleman walked up and asked what was to be done about the parasitoids that he claimed were carried by as much as 15% of the lady beetles being sold for pest control. Gardens Alive! had long championed lady beetles for pest management, and the notion that we might be shipping parasitoids that could hatch out and kill local ladybugs really took me aback. So much so that we began to look far more closely at our own beetle program. It took a good bit of time and money, but we eventually solved the problem and another, potentially bigger one, to boot. You see, when lady beetles come out of hibernation (which is when they're usually shipped) their stored food reserves are all but depleted. Thus they arrive starving, and perhaps as many as 50% of them are too weak to feed themselves when they're released in our gardens. They starve to death in the midst of plenty. We learned, too, that lady beetles have a strong flight urge after hibernating, a necessary adaptation as it spreads the population of these little predators out and lessens competition for food. Of course, gardeners that purchase lady beetles want them to stay put, to feast upon the aphids in that grower's own plot rather than in another garden miles away. So, after a good bit of experimentation, we started feeding our lady beetles after they came out of hibernation, and doing so in cages that would allow them to fly and to fulfill their wanderlust imperative. And, of course, since this gave us a chance to observe the insects before shipping them, we were able to separate out the parasitized 15% before filling our customer's orders. We call the result our "Sta-home" lady beetles. They reach the garden strong, healthy, ready to feed, and content to settle down where they're put. No other supplier of lady beetles has invested the time and money necessary to ship well-fed, parasitoid-free insects. But we make sure our environmentally responsible products work. And it's on that ground that I urge you to try some of our products on your lawn or garden. Not because they can help slow the turning of our groundwater into a toxic chemical soup (though you can consider that a bonus); and not because they're healthier for you, your family, your pets, and the birds and animals that share your little corner of the ecosystem (though most people would consider that a pretty potent added value); and not even because many of them will help you build a living, vital soil that helps your garden vegetables, flowers and lawn shrug off insect pests and diseases. No, we want you to try them to prove to yourself that they work, that quality, tested, environmentally sound products can match the chemical alternatives penny for penny and result for result. If you do, and prove to yourself that you can "do well by doing good," we all (including humans, plants, beneficial insects, pets and wildlife) come out on top. I've only touched upon a couple of items in the line of Gardens Alive! "environmentally responsible products that work." Whether you want to control fleas in your home, pests in your garden or moths on your fine woolens; whether you want to keep deer from destroying your landscape plants or want to raise spectacular roses without chemicals; or whether you're growing bulbs or vegetables or fruit trees or grass seed, Gardens Alive! has a product that will help you succeed without turning your garden, yard or home into a minefield of chemical worries, a product that can save your peace of mind and soothe your budget. Environmentally responsible products that work? You bet, and it's about time! __________________________________________________________________________ Get pest control \| Terms and conditions \| Resources pest control guidebook \| help with pest control \| pest control info \| pest control services \| pest control references Copyright pestcontrolzapaway.com. All rights Reserved world wide. All trademarks and service marks are property of their respective owners.

From Gardens Alive!: The Beginning

Following is the story of the Gardens Alive! beginning from the founder and president of the company, Niles Kinerk:

I started Gardens Alive!, then called Natural Gardening Research Center, in 1984, and set about finding products that I could sell and that I believed in. Our first catalogs focused on such now commonplace but then hard to find products as Bacillus thuringiensis (a bacteria that targets specific pests but is harmless to birds, worms, wildlife, and people), rotenone (a natural pesticide derived from the roots of a tropical plant) and, as the concept of using insects to fight insects began to gain popularity, the first beneficial insect species that Gardens Alive! still sells today.

In 1988 we changed the name of the company to Gardens Alive! (try saying "Natural Gardening Research Center" three times fast), and we've continued to search out environmentally sound products that our customers couldn't find elsewhere. Products that work.

I discovered, for example, that a product called M-One, a form of Bacillus thuringiensis that specifically targets the Colorado potato beetle, was available to large scale growers but not in quantities suitable for backyard gardeners. Well, it took a year of negotiations, we had to purchase quantities far above the means of our little catalog to move them quickly, and we ended up filling bottles ourselves, using a hand-pump to empty the manufacturer's 5-gallon buckets, but we were able to offer our customers one more environmentally sound product that worked. (M-One has since evolved into an improved product called M-Trak, which we sell to this day!)

Sometime later I was attending a meeting of the Entomological Society of America. I was chatting with the head of the National Biocontrol Institute, when another gentleman walked up and asked what was to be done about the parasitoids that he claimed were carried by as much as 15% of the lady beetles being sold for pest control. Gardens Alive! had long championed lady beetles for pest management, and the notion that we might be shipping parasitoids that could hatch out and kill local ladybugs really took me aback. So much so that we began to look far more closely at our own beetle program. It took a good bit of time and money, but we eventually solved the problem and another, potentially bigger one, to boot.

You see, when lady beetles come out of hibernation (which is when they're usually shipped) their stored food reserves are all but depleted. Thus they arrive starving, and perhaps as many as 50% of them are too weak to feed themselves when they're released in our gardens. They starve to death in the midst of plenty.

We learned, too, that lady beetles have a strong flight urge after hibernating, a necessary adaptation as it spreads the population of these little predators out and lessens competition for food. Of course, gardeners that purchase lady beetles want them to stay put, to feast upon the aphids in that grower's own plot rather than in another garden miles away.

So, after a good bit of experimentation, we started feeding our lady beetles after they came out of hibernation, and doing so in cages that would allow them to fly and to fulfill their wanderlust imperative. And, of course, since this gave us a chance to observe the insects before shipping them, we were able to separate out the parasitized 15% before filling our customer's orders. We call the result our "Sta-home" lady beetles. They reach the garden strong, healthy, ready to feed, and content to settle down where they're put. No other supplier of lady beetles has invested the time and money necessary to ship well-fed, parasitoid-free insects. But we make sure our environmentally responsible products work.

And it's on that ground that I urge you to try some of our products on your lawn or garden. Not because they can help slow the turning of our groundwater into a toxic chemical soup (though you can consider that a bonus); and not because they're healthier for you, your family, your pets, and the birds and animals that share your little corner of the ecosystem (though most people would consider that a pretty potent added value); and not even because many of them will help you build a living, vital soil that helps your garden vegetables, flowers and lawn shrug off insect pests and diseases. No, we want you to try them to prove to yourself that they work, that quality, tested, environmentally sound products can match the chemical alternatives penny for penny and result for result. If you do, and prove to yourself that you can "do well by doing good," we all (including humans, plants, beneficial insects, pets and wildlife) come out on top.

I've only touched upon a couple of items in the line of Gardens Alive! "environmentally responsible products that work." Whether you want to control fleas in your home, pests in your garden or moths on your fine woolens; whether you want to keep deer from destroying your landscape plants or want to raise spectacular roses without chemicals; or whether you're growing bulbs or vegetables or fruit trees or grass seed, Gardens Alive! has a product that will help you succeed without turning your garden, yard or home into a minefield of chemical worries, a product that can save your peace of mind and soothe your budget.

Environmentally responsible products that work? You bet, and it's about time!

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