Biology:BioBee

BioBee is a biotech company based in Sde Eliyahu, a kibbutz located in Northern Israel's Beit Shean Valley. BioBee produces other predatory insects and parasites used in biological pest control and integrated pest management programs that can reduce the reliance on chemical pesticides. One example is a patented parasitic wasp for control of mealybugs. Another is the Bio Persimilis spider, a large spider mite that eats smaller spider mites who feed on crops. In 2015, The Times of Israel reported that BioBee's spider mites would be used to control pests threatening coffee crops in Colombia.

The company has been involved in a Ministry of Agriculture project that has sought to reduce the Mediterranean fruit fly population without using chemical pesticides. The project attempts to accomplish this by using a process called the sterile insect technique that introduces sterile male fruit flies into the population. This project has been carried out in the Gaza Strip and it is estimated that as a result farmers were able to reduce their chemical pesticide usage by 33,000 liters. These flies have previously been used in citrus groves in the Balkans and the western Negev.