At Saveol's insect farm, the predatory bugs feast on moth eggs spread over hundreds of tobacco plants, which are in the same family as tomatoes and eggplants. Photo: Fred Tanneau/AFP
Farmers in western France are doubling down on an unusual crop: breeding millions of tiny predatory bugs and wasps to protect tomato plants without resorting to the insecticides that consumers are shunning.
"Here, we're in one of the greenhouses for a bug that's called the macrolophus," says Pierre-Yves Jestin, as clouds of the pale green insects swarm around his hands.
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