Kelly Vance
You might call Kelly Vance a mite assassin.
Vance has been a licensed pesticide applicator for more than 15 years, so killing insects is clearly in his job description.
However, now that’s he’s a technical consultant for Beneficial Insectary — a company that provides natural pest management solutions — Vance says he has “no desire to ever spray chemicals again.”
Vance says cannabis growers need biocontrols not only because of limited chemical options and stringent testing procedures, but “to produce a clean product for medical and recreational consumers.”
“This has made me focus harder on offering dynamic control options for these pests to accommodate the needs of my customer base,” he says.
After spending the majority of his career safeguarding houseplants and ornamentals in massive commercial greenhouses, Vance joined Beneficial Insectary in 2016. Now, roughly half his clients operate cannabis farms.
“The fields intersect because the pests nearly always do,” he says. “Spider mites, broad and russet mites (and) aphids don’t care if you’re growing strawberries, azaleas or cannabis.”
Although there are many similarities between marijuana production and traditional horticulture, Vance says commercial-scale cannabis operations tend to attract more pests, more frequently. Farms face a constant threat of infestation and just one bad season has the potential to shutter an operation permanently.
“Their livelihood depends on the performance of a crop and with so many unknowns they can’t risk losing their hard work to pest pressure,” he says.