These are the new classrooms of the school, built through the partnership of the Ministry of Education and the largest coffee farm in the area. The biological control lab occupies one half of one of the classrooms.



This is the greenhouse where cabbage and other plants will be started. The sides are of a fine mesh, allowing air flow, while the roof is of plastic sheeting. Starting plants in the greenhouse protects them from wind and rain and helps insure that they enter the lab pest-free.





The healthy cabbage plants are then placed in the boxes (above) and the pest, the diamondback moth, is introduced. The female moths lay eggs from which the caterpillars hatch and begin to devour the leaves of the plant. Once the caterpillars reach a certain size, the parasitic wasp is introduced into the box. The female wasps lay their eggs inside the bodies of the live caterpillars. Once the eggs hatch, the wasp larvae begin eating the caterpillars from the inside out. They form a cocoon very similar to the pest's cocoon, with one big difference: instead of another moth coming out, out comes a brand new wasp. In this way a large number of wasps can be produced. Then when there is a moth infestation in a cabbage field--which is almost always--the wasps can be released. The females again go to work destroying the cabbage-eating caterpillars (and producing more wasps). In this way a farmer using the technique of biological control can reduce or eliminate the use of certain chemicals from cabbage cultivation.