An Organic Orchard Re-tell

 Marjorie Clark runs an Organic Orchard in Kerikeri and by Organic, she means not using poisonous chemicals and spraying her plants. She told School Journal that nature was like a see-saw and taking those sprayers off made nature swing a bit.

When she first started her new "way" things went completely wrong. The insect pests like red  mite and thrips that had usually been killed by the sprayers where coming and ruining the fruit and plants. Then, the green beetle came, the green beetle was a beetle that was giving a lot of people in the North trouble. They still didn't spray, even though it was really hard. In a year or two, the green beetle had almost disappeared. They knew that some time before, the DSIR2 released a parasite that attacks the eggs of the green beetle. Marjorie and her husband thought that because they didn't spray, the parasite had multiplied and controlled the green beetle for them.

Slowly, other predators such as the Australian paper wasp, the praying mantis and the predatory mites moved in, things were back in balance and the red mite and thrips had disappeared! Their fruit was still marked from insects but things were getting better.

Things were getting much better and all the insects were moving in and helping out. Marjorie was very happy. By the end of that year, the orchard was much better than with the sprayers!