Students invited to the NJDA Beneficial Insect Laboratory by the NJ Secretary of Agriculture

This laboratory helps safeguard the state’s agricultural and natural resources from injurious pests and diseases. Here the Department of Agriculture (NJDA) has been developing and implementing biological control programs to help farmers control plant pests since the 1920s, starting with the Japanese beetle. NJDA has been a national leader in the biological control of plant pests since the 1960s. The New Jersey Department of Agriculture’s 21,000-square-foot state-of-the-art beneficial insect-rearing laboratory was constructed in 1985. Designed for biological pest control the facility allows state entomologists to develop insect-rearing techniques and mass-produce beneficial insects to be used to help reduce insect and weed populations below economic levels. Construction of this building has made it possible for the Department’s Division of Plant Industry to simultaneously mass produce a variety of beneficial insect species for control of many different species of pest insects and weeds.