Warrior Bugs at Work

With an 18,000- square-foot indoor cannabis cultivation facility in Tucson, Ariz., Green Medicine, Inc. grows premium flower exclusively for its Tucson dispensary—known to locals as Southern Arizona Integrated Therapies, or Tucson SAINTS for short.

When the company launched the grow in April 2013, the focus was on providing the safest, best possible flower for its medical patients. Operations Manager Susan Crownhart says recreational sales haven’t changed that approach, and ARBICO helps Tucson SAINTS fulfill its goal.

“We started off on the medical end of it, giving this product to people that are already compromised. So we’re not going to use products that may be detrimental to their health,” Crownhart says. “We have always tried to use things that are less harmful in general—to the environment, to our employees, to our patients.”

As a result, the company turned to ARBICO about eight years ago when developing an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program for the indoor cultivation facility.

“Growers in any genre fight pests,” Crownhart says. “You either spray things on your plants that you don’t want to spray on them, or you use what nature uses—you use beneficial insects. I call them warrior bugs. They go in and they fight that battle for us, and they multiply while they’re in there.”

Head Grower Nadine Fermawi says ARBICO’s input and support have been integral to the IPM program’s success.

“When we were setting it up, we had them come out and they walked around our grow with us,” she explains. “They got specific counts, they saw how we specifically grow, and they helped us formulate a bug program to better assist us—and it’s very unique to our situation. We really appreciated that.”

Fermawi relies primarily on Amblyseius andersoni predatory mites for pre-emergent control of russet mites, her most persistent pest. She also uses Orius insidiosus (pirate bugs) to control all stages of small pests such as mites and thrips, along with some ARBICO-recommended foliar sprays.

Ongoing support from ARBICO has been “pretty great,” Fermawi says. She can call the team for advice and guidance on any problems and they always make sure that any sprays are compatible with the grow’s IPM program and the beneficials that are now well established inside.

Over the years, Crownhart says plants became healthier and the company has reduced the amount of products purchased from ARBICO. But Fermawi still picks up bugs every week—a benefit of being in ARBICO’s hometown—and deploys them to supplement established “warrior bugs.”

For Crownhart, using ARBICO beneficial insects and products is good for business all around—from healthier plants and profits to customer satisfaction and pride for the Tucson SAINTS team.

“It really allows us to honestly and openly tell people what we do,” she says. “I think once patients find out what we use and how we grow—and we’re very open about that—it helps them. It allows me to feel better, and I think our staff is very proud of what we put out.”

Learn more at www.arbico-organics.com