Mass rearing from scratch: How many cooks do you need in the kitchen?

Classical biological control has been shown to be a cost-effective component of integrated pest management for invasive species. In mass rearing facilities the production of agents can be streamlined to increase efficiency, quality, and quantity of insects. In some cases, these facilities can also be managed in a manner that allows the production of multiple species. This conserves resources while allowing team members to gain experience with numerous rearing systems. It also results in increased knowledge, skills, and breaks up the monotony that is part of the nature of mass rearing. Overall, it can lead to increased retention of and fewer transitional employees, which is beneficial as maintaining team members reduces time needed to seek out and train new individuals.

Cross-training team members means fewer technicians are needed overall as they can move from one system to another in a time efficient manner. This also frees more experienced scientists to carry out research associated with the mass rearing systems such as field releases and population monitoring. The research that this team has performed with collaborators has improved management of invasive species and results will be presented. Increasing the number of species reared at our facility has increased the number of collaborators we have in Florida and across the southeastern U.S. This has in turn promoted extension and virtual outreach events across the country. How many cooks do you think were needed in our kitchen to rear multiple species of biocontrol agents, perform country wide extension, and research on invasive species?