We export potted flowers, mainly Phalaenopsis and Anthurium, to Japan and Europe. In this business the real fear is not pest pressure but quarantine — one shipment found with live insects means fumigation at best, with flower life discounted, or outright rejection at worst. Thrips are the worst offender: tiny, hiding in the flower centre, almost impossible to spot by eye. For the past two years every vent, doorway and buffer entry in the greenhouse has been sealed with this insect netting. The mesh count is fine enough that thrips are largely excluded, light transmission and ventilation are preserved, flower-bud initiation is normal and flowering was unaffected. Combined with yellow sticky traps and beneficials, fumigation has dropped markedly, and pre-shipment sampling now feels far more secure. We order in bulk per greenhouse on one specification, edge-piece top-ups are easy, and this is our third year of reordering.

We grow organic leafy greens — bok choy, Chinese broccoli and choy sum. Certification rules out chemical pesticides, and our worst pest is flea beetle: seedlings are peppered with holes the moment they emerge, yellow sticky traps do not hold them, and we end up resowing again and again, wasting both labour and seed. We then switched to this insect netting as a floating row cover, laid straight over the bed after direct sowing and earthed down at the edges. The mesh count is fine enough that flea beetles cannot get through, light transmission and ventilation are adequate, seedlings do not stretch and emergence is even. In summer it also knocks down some of the strong light, the soil surface does not crust, and watering through the net does not wash out the seedlings. You simply lift it before harvesting; two people cover an acre in half a day, far less work than building low tunnels.