Secrets

Certis Biologicals had a news release about acquiring new products from AgBiome recently. I noticed there was an interim CEO mentioned in the news release, and he was the previous CEO. I think the current CEO, Amy O'Shea got fired for performing her job poorly. I am not surprised. She was a horrible CEO, and the company wasn't the same when she was hired. She was the reason why so many incompetent management existed. She was incompetent herself. I was surprised she lasted this long. I would have fired her a long time ago if I was part of the board. She wasn't focused on making revenue. She was focused on trivial things like cutting costs or office renovations. They hired so many unnecessary employees just to stand around and talk all day. They didn't hire the necessary essential employees when needed at a desperate time. The company is really quiet about this, and they are not making an announcement about her dismissal. I went on Glassdoor, and I noticed someone wrote a...

NemaClean 10% WP is not a new innovation. The active ingredient is Purpureocillium lilacinum strain PL11. The strain was acquired from LAM International. 

The active ingredient of Convergence is Bacillus amyloliquefaciens . This is the same active ingredient as Double Nickel 55. They were marketing Convergence as an innovative product! IT IS NOT! They already sell a product with the same active ingredient, which is Double Nickel 55!  Now, I am not sure how they priced these two products with the same active. I am also not sure if they use the same formulation and just repackaged Double Nickel 55 as Convergence. Since it was EPA approved so fast, I think they repackaged Double Nickel 55 as Convergence! Usually, it takes time to go through EPA if there is a formulation change. The EPA numbers on the label is are the same. These are the questions you need to ask the company before you purchase from them. You need to ask about the difference between the formulation and spec of Double Nickel 55 and Convergence! Don't get cheated by them. It's all part of the marketing scheme! Be smart.  Just compare the labels! It's the same produ...

Apparently, Certis Biologicals is going to launch five new products when their manufacturing site cannot even keep up with their current products. Their manufacturing site cannot even make the current products right. There is so much cross contamination at the manufacturing site. The manufacturing site doesn't really clean before they start producing a new product. Even if they clean, they don't clean well.  This company doesn't offer quality products. Most of the time they are below spec and contaminated. I highly urge you to use your own third party testing before investing money in these awful products. Don't trust the certificate of analysis or third party certifications provided by them. They usually manipulate test results and use their preferred third part companies!

I used to do quality control for most products at Certis Biologicals. The two fungal products, PFR and SoilGard, were always below spec and contaminated with bacteria. Sometimes, they were contaminated with Double Nickel ( Bacillus amyloliquefaciens) , and this bacteria kills PFR and SoilGard. These two products are not very shelf stable at room temperature despite formulation changes. It will only last weeks tops. It may last a couple of months if refrigerated. This company tries to market a SoilGard product as stable for two years! LIES!!!! Don't even get me started on their other fungal products. The measure of potency for their other fungal products uses germination (viable spores/g or viable spores/ml) instead of colony forming units (CFU/g or CFU/ml). Most of the time these products will pass if they claim viable spores counts, but they will fail if they claim CFU counts. PFR and SoilGard use CFU counts, while the other fungal products acquired from the LAM international in B...

The two products that don't work from this biopesticides company are Seduce (ant bait) and Homeplate (herbicide). They don't work. The ants are still alive and not killed off! The ants got smart and avoided eating these pellets. Homeplate doesn't work. The weeds keep growing back instantly. I would only use this crap if you have absolutely no choice.  If you have a choice, stay far, far away from these products and save your money! Stay far, far away from any products from this company! Nothing works! They are all probably old and expired products. Remember, biologicals don't keep for very long. They only last a couple of weeks to a couple of months depending on the product. If you want products that work, use the chemical stuff from Home Depot. For any bait, the best one has got to be Terro (ant bait), specifically the stakes. For herbicide, nothing beats Roundup despite all the lawsuits. They just work and they are more affordable.

Why I decided to leave this biopesticide company after dedicating years of my life to this company? Management! Everyone that I have ever worked with for years have retired or left the company taking their skills with them. No one stayed to train the new hires. The new hires don't know what they are doing.  Some of the folks who retired were offered contracts, but they were not used when we needed them most. They were only used when the most essential employees left. What pissed me off the most is, they try to make me train my new boss and do all of my new boss's work instead of hiring my old boss to train my new boss. I mean, I should be compensated more if I need to do that. I don't do extra work for free, especially when I was already overworked and overwhelmed.  I loathe the executive vice president because it was all his decision to overwhelm me rather than call my old boss for help. I keep suggesting to him to call my old boss for help, and he refuses. He finally call...

Certis Biologicals has a product that kills bees. It's BmJ ( Bacillus mycoides Jacobsen) which induces the plant's systemic resistance. The supernatant of the product kills bees. Basically, the metabolites that this particular microorganism produces in this product is toxic to bees.  We were not aware of this until the regulatory department sent the product out for various tests on animals and insects. This is to ensure that the product will actually be safe in the environment, and it won't disrupt other organisms. When regulatory received the results, they informed our research and development department that it kills bees and we cannot approve the product through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The whole year of work on the product was down the drain. We started over with this project. Instead of eliminating the product, we decided to wash the product meaning diluting the supernatant with water so the metabolites will be lower than detectable levels. They hope...