Overcome the Threat of Pests with Kemin's Botanicals

The future of crop protection is botanicals

When mites, soft-bodied insects, or lepidopteran pests threaten your field, preventative sprays with botanical oil-based biopesticides are key to success. As an expert in essential oils, Kemin Crop Technologies supplies growers with contact miticides, insecticides, and repellents. Our products are made with a proprietary rosemary oil blend and garlic oil that effectively controls key pests thanks to their multiple modes of action.

More specialty crop growers want to shift towards sustainable and efficient farming methods. With the growing awareness and adoption of botanicals in IPM programs, there comes a need for information. We want to bring growers' education on botanicals to the next level and show them how to unlock the advantages of our crop protection tools.
 

New agricultural biological products in the industry

Kemin's botanical products can be used in both conventional and organic operations, or for conventional fields that want to convert to organic!

What are botanical-based biologicals?

Biologicals are formulated from natural ingredients and compounds. The plant oils in our products work to protect your crops from pest infestations organically. "Plants use self-created pesticides to defend against diseases, herbivores, and insects. The insecticides made with these natural pesticides have minimal to no toxic effect on the environment while acting fast to tackle insects." Biologicals offer effective alternative solutions for farmers. 

Biopesticides are not only effective but also a sustainable way to protect crops. According to the Biopesticide Industry Alliance (BPIA), "Biological products provide an effective solution to increasing quality and yield while meeting the industry demand for sustainable controls." 

Biologicals are gaining traction as awareness grows, and farmers must educate themselves. As a highly effective alternative to conventional pesticides, using botanicals could be a beneficial addition to your IPM program. 
 

Driven by our expertise and passion for botanicals

The love for complex plants and their naturally derived active ingredients is common to all Kemin team members. Our passion stems from decades of experience with our scientifically-advanced and sustainably grown plant lines and for discovering new plant-based solutions we bring to consumers. 

At Kemin Crop Technologies, we trust the oils we get from the Kemin labs. Our research and development staff excel in identifying and analyzing different plants that naturally produce molecules, extracting their oil to create a consistent, high-quality, and reliable supply of active ingredients to formulate superior and effective botanically-derived insecticides.

Key benefits of using botanical-based biopesticides in IPM programs

Botanicals work!

Some of the grower’s adoption challenges of this product category is the fear of lack of efficacy. We ran our trials with trusted third-party researchers and universities, testing our products with commonly used chemistries. Our trial demonstrated a performance from nature-based products that is as equivalent and sometimes even better than conventional chemistry, without the hurdle of all the restrictions!

Adopt a proactive approach with Kemin's botanical oil-based biopesticides

How it works:  Botanical products typically do not have the same knockdown abilities as conventional tools. Therefore, spraying early and consistently at a lower rate will ensure the pest populations remain manageable throughout the growing season.

Why it matters: The lower rate, most of the time, can be sprayed repeatedly on crops without risks of phytotoxicity and keeping pest populations at bay. At the difference, the highest rate is often for rescue use or when the pest population has grown to a point where a more aggressive spray is needed.

Bottom line: Understanding the pest economic threshold is very important for proper spray applications. It is essential to have a solid IPM program that prevents pest populations from growing to an infestation level.

Using Kemin's botanicals to overcome pest resistance to single chemistry

Conventional chemistries have been pivotal in ensuring crop security for decades. Unfortunately, because those synthetic chemicals are made up of particular, engineered uniform molecules, over time, certain pests can develop resistance to these molecules. Not only that, but they can also induce a persistent buildup of toxic substances in the environment, soil, water, and the crop itself, making them dangerous to people, pets, or livestock. Moreover, their persistent and robust effect can negatively affect beneficial insects, bees, and pollinator populations.

Specialty crop and greenhouse growers committed to preventing insect pesticide resistance create an IPM program that includes various chemicals with different modes of action in rotation, especially if they are using conventional chemistries. 

The good news is products like Kemin’s biologicals contain active ingredients that work through multiple modes of action in one single product already. This ​helps growers reduce the number of chemicals that must be applied and the likelihood of insects developing resistance.