For cucumber growers to be successful, they had to broadcast Amblyseius cucumeris on a weekly basis. Most Amblyseius species can feed on pollen as a supplementary food and pepper crops have lots of pollen whereas long English cucumber varieties donвЂ™t because they only produce female flowers. What is the difference? Pollen availability. In long English cucumbers it was a very different story.

In greenhouse bell peppers, it was fairly easy to get a population of Amblyseius cucumeris established, a few broadcast applications early in the crop cycle were enough to get the job done. To be successful, this predator must be present on the plants at all times and ideally in high numbers. This means the window of opportunity is only about three days at 68В° F and one and a half days at 86В° F. This predatory mite targets immature thrips, and more specifically larval stage 1. As a result, Amblyseius cucumeris was introduced for the control of thrips. With increasing international travel in young plant material, Western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) became a problem in many countries in the 1980s. Phytoseiulus persimilis is now used in many countries and in many different crops including greenhouse vegetable and ornamental crops, foliage and potted plant production as well as the soft fruit and strawberry crops in, for example, California. Even though it canвЂ™t fly, it is highly mobile and will travel from plant to plant and even over crop support wires to find prey on neighboring plants. Phytoseiulus persimilis is a specialist predator it only accepts TSSM as prey, and therefore it has adapted to be very good at searching for its prey.

However, the key to success with this strategy is to start introductions when TSSM populations are still very low. Phytoseiulus persimilis is highly effective its high predation rate and fast reproduction allow it to quickly overcome TSSM populations. Fifty years ago Phytoseiulus persimilis became a commercially produced biocontrol agent, primarily focused on TTSM control in cucumbers. Both crops are susceptible to whitefly, and cucumber crops were also battling with pesticide resistant TTSM. In the early days, biocontrol was mainly focused on cucumber and tomato crops in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. One significant difference between insect and mite biocontrol agents is that mites cannot fly, meaning success with predatory mites depends a lot on choosing the right introduction method.

The thing that all these species have in common - they are predatory mites, not insects. Since then several other species of predatory mites have been introduced to control a range of different pests: Amblyseius cucumeris, Amblyseius swirskii, Ambyseius californicus and many others. One of the first commercially produced biocontrol agents, back in the late 1960s, was Phytoseiulus persimilis, a predatory mite to control two spotted spider mite (TSSM). The use of predatory mites is an essential part of biocontrol programs used by both vegetable and ornamental growers around the world.

Led lighting biocontrol agents