Is it back?! The article suggested that L. dactylopii are once again being produced and distributed
I just finished reading an article, “What’s New, What Works: Mealy Defense” by Suzanne Wainwright-Evans (The Bug Lady), in Interiorscape Magazine (Jul.-Aug., 2005). It was a very well-written piece, typical of her writing. In one sense it left me begging for more.
The article was about the citrus mealybug parasitoid Leptomastix dactylopii. A fairly well-known and notably effective maintenance tool against the citrus mealybug, Planococcus citri. (See Scale & Mealybug Pests to learn more.) The writing was spot-on in its information with exception to one point in particular, possibly two:
- First, it was being billed as a “new” biocontrol agent when in fact it is far from that. Back in the early 1990s we carried these mini-wasps. They were offered as adults in our catalog. At the time they were being produced by “Canadian Insectaries.” Supplies were pretty good, in fact. But demand was not. We were supplied only until the mid- to late-nineties, then Canadian Insectaries had to close its doors. The whole business thing just wasn’t working out for them. It’s a shame as they were nice people and they had a great product.
- This leads to the second question the article raised: Is it back?! The article suggested that L. dactylopii are once again being produced and distributed. But it failed to mention or answer the obvious questions? Can we really get them and from whom? The last I knew — as of last month, in fact — there were two university cultures in the United States, one in the East, and one in the West. These cultures were being maintained for private usage within the facilities for which they were being reared. Sharing was very limited simply because these were not mass-reared cultures.
In the past, on several occasions, the above-named author has declined comment when contacted — just busy I suppose. But it’s come the point that I no longer try. Thus I write it here… Does anyone know of a commercial source of these particular parasitoids? It would more than likely have to be in Canada or the United States as these mini-wasps are extremely fragile and wouldn’t ship well from Europe.
If anyone has any information, please use our Contact Form to get in touch. We’ll either share the information here or we’ll try to put them back into the marketplace ourselves. They’re a really good parasitoid we’d love to see back on the shelf, so to speak. It’d be great news for interiorscapers or to those who manage botanical gardens and the like.
