Association of Natural Biocontrol Producers (ANBP)

ANBP President:
Richard Ward

ANBP Executive Director:
Lynn LeBeck

Phone: 559.360.7111
Fax: 800.553.4817

About ASTM

ASTM International is a non-profit international organization with the purpose of "the development of standards on characteristics and performance of materials, products, systems and services; and the promotion of related knowledge."

Subcommittee E35.30 on Natural Multi-Cellular (Metazoan) Biological Control Organisms
The scope of subcommittee E35.30 is the development of standard definitions, classifications, appropriate test methods, and recommended practices for quality, handling, distribution and use of natural multi-cellular biological control organisms.

Stakeholders working with natural enemies have joined ASTM Subcommittee E35.30 on Natural Multi-Cellular (Metazoan) Biological Control Organisms, and are active in creating, commenting on, and voting on standards for commercial natural enemy products. Currently standards have been adopted for 3 species (see table). To date, quality standards have focused on methods of evaluating whether numbers received by the buyer meet the numbers that were claimed by the seller. Our latest work will add an evaluation of vigor to the quality specification.

Members Welcome!
As a full consensus organization, all opinions on standards under development are valued and considered. Please contact the task group leaders on standards that you wish to review and comment on. We strive for specifications that are acceptable to both the producer and user communities.

To Join
All stakeholders in biological control are welcome to join as individuals or as representatives of organizations. The yearly cost of $75 per year is very reasonable. The benefits of membership includes access to the members website for review of standards in progress, a free volume of standards every year, and the right to vote on all standards as they come to ballot. Check the astm.org website for information on the organization or call 610 832 9727. If you wish, you can register via the website using a credit card or you can register by mail. Be sure when you register to include the subcommittee number E35.30 on the application.

If you register on the website, select the membership category and go to Join ASTM International, New Member, Participating Member, and highlight the committee entitled E35 Pesticides. (The name has been changed to Pesticides and Alternate Controls, but this has not yet registered on the website). Then in the subcommittee box, simply type E35.30. Continue following the prompts. At the end, be sure to get your free volume of standards. You may want to select Volume 11.05, which is the book that contains the E35 committee’s standards. You may prefer the CD, as the volumes are very large and heavy.