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The benefits of Biological Control were found to be numerous. Beneficial insects and mites used correctly reduce or often eliminate the need for pesticides, resulting in environmentally friendly crop protection.
Bunting & Sons found that by not spraying its tomato crops with pesticides the plants grew better, yields were increased (by about 10%) and the fruit tasted wonderful.
In 1983 Stephen Bunting received the industry's National Award for outstanding services to horticulture.
In 1991 Bunting Biological Control was awarded the Queen's Award for Export Achievement.
In 1992 all of the Biological Control companies established outside Bunting & Sons were sold to Ciba Geigy and the holding company was renamed Ciba Bunting Limited. Biological Control production continued on the nursery
site at Great Horkesley until 2000 when it was relocated to near Clacton-on-Sea.
Various changes of name and mergers have since followed and the biological control business now forms part of the multinational pharmaceutical empire of Syngenta. Ciba Geigy and its successors recognised the benefit of
biological control as a way for them to extend the sale life of their agrichemicals. By using biological control in conjunction with pesticides it was found that crop pests can take longer to become resistant to the chemical products that may need to be used. Without the use of Integrated
Pest Management, as it is now known, pesticides can become redundant in a relatively short time, as a result of pests developing resistance.
With R&D and marketing costs running into tens of millions of pounds for a new product, extending the life span of a pesticide by using Integrated Pest Management is of considerable benefit to the agrichemical industry.
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