Are Biopesticides Effective or NOT?

Biopesticides are effective depending on the microorganism and if the product is on spec. Most of the time products like Bacillus thuringiensis are effective since they have been studied for years and extensively. Products like this are in spore form. They are less likely to degrade as fast as fungal products. Fungal products have the shortest shelf life even though they are in conidia and blastospore forms. Biologicals DO NOT have a long shelf life compare to chemicals. 

For the products that are manufactured from my former company, they may not be effective at all. The products are constantly below spec and contaminated. The manufacturing site is a disaster. They don't do any quality control at the manufacturing site. They always try to send it to headquarters, and have the R&D department test the products for quality control. They also don't clean the fermenters after each run. Since they don't have the capacity to produce all of their products, they use the same fermenters to produce many different products. That's why they struggle with contamination in their products.

The manufacturing site cannot produce good fermentations either. All of their Bacillus thuringiensis products have to be imported from China. The manufacturing site can never reach spec, while the Chinese are able to reach spec. They basically have the Chinese produce the microbial raw material (also called technical product), then they ship it to the manufacturing site to be formulated into products. They wouldn't be able to do much without China.

Sometimes, they send it out to customers before they are inspected. There were many times where it was below spec, and they try to make me manipulate results for the Certificate of Analysis just to make it pass. The reason is they had already shipped the product to the customer. I didn't want to be a part of that company culture anymore. The things they made me do were unethical. No one listens to anybody. No one works together. Everyone is just arrogant. Their entitled attitude sometimes make them incompetent.

This may not be true for other biopesticide companies. My former company did obtain several competitor's products, and the competitor's products are usually on spec and better than ours. 

As I have already mentioned at the beginning, fungal products are not very stable. If a biopesticide company claims that a fungal biopesticides product can last more than a year at room temperature, stay far, far away from the product and possibly the company. They are lying to you. Fungal biopesticide products last only a year refrigerated, and only a couple of months at room temperature no matter what the formulation is. Sometimes, they last less than what I have stated depending on the fungi. 

Their Vice President of Field Development retired. Before he retired, he gave this huge presentation about how every potential product failed in the field. I think this may be one of the reasons why he retired, even though he seemed to love his job. He tried to make me do molecular projects to prove our products work, but my former boss who also retired disagreed with him. The reason is field trials are a better indication of whether something works or not. Something simulated in the lab is no where as good as field trials. Field trials are expensive, which is why they want lab simulated results.

If a company uses lab simulated results, stay far, far away from the product and company. I would only trust field trials. That is something a company has to invest to promote a product. If they spend too much time and money using field trials as a screening method, then the company needs better management and employees making decisions. They are probably doing too much and trying to promote too many products. That is why all the potential products failed in the field, and you end up with nothing new. They are still promoting old products.

If a company sells too many products, stay far, far away from the products and company. If they are not a big company, then they are likely a small company who don't have the capacity to produce all of the products. Their products also suffer in terms of quality, which is why they are below spec. 

I agree biopesticides suck. They are expensive and not as effective as chemicals. I would only use biopesticides if I am an organic farmer because I have no choice. This may be why organic foods are overpriced. I mean, organic foods at the supermarket aren't all that great compare to non-organic foods. My former retired coworker and I discussed this, and we both tend to buy non-organic even though we both work for a biopesticide company. Haha. Just wash your produce really well. Eating too "clean" can hurt you in the long run, especially if there is a famine or apocalypse. Hehe.