We’ll share others we think you’ll find interesting.
Every now and then we receive reports about what’s going on behind the scenes in our industry. News of experimentation, trials, candidate biocontrols, new sprays, and the like. Typically these reports wouldn’t be too important to our readers and customers as they are early reports, but one we got last week that may be of interest to some — especially those willing to conduct their own experiments perhaps. And most notably to those who have talked to us about their problems with psyllids. The following pertains to the potato (tomato) psyllid (Paratrioza cockerelli), but may be applicable to other species.
This is one such report, in part, covering Aphidoletes aphidimyza. It was originally written by Brian Spencer, General Manager of Applied Bio-nomics Ltd. and quoted as such, but it is edited for content and in places paraphrased.
We are doing a large scale trial for psyllid control at a Vancouver greenhouse, on pepper and tomato. Anna Lucynski noticed, about 10 years ago, when the potato psyllid first showed it’s ugly head in Vancouver, that Aphidoletes aphidimyza were actively feeding on the larval stages. We have also observed the same. In this greenhouse, we were doing a small area, as a trial. We were given the ugliest crops, eggplant, two types of mini-cucumbers, and hot peppers. The manager asked us to explain why our area was not over-run by psyllids, while the main area, peppers and tomatoes, were out of control with psyllids, to a point where the owner was going to pull the crop.
We pointed out that the psyllid was, in fact, in our crop, but being controlled. A walk through showed many A. aphidimyza actively feeding on the psyllids, still no whitefly [whitefly info], or aphids [aphid info], in all of the crops we were working with.
[Also, covering Delphastus cataliniae]
In the same greenhouse we have been adding weekly introductions of D. cataliniae, even though there are no whitefly and there is a possibility that the D. cataliniae have been actively eating the psyllid eggs and early instars, as the psyllid is closely related to whitefly and the D. cataliniae are capable of controlling every known whitefly. — Brian Spencer
We know D. cataliniae prey on the California giant whitefly so that is a pretty sound statement. The report also noted that Amblyseius swirskii severely interfere with A. aphidimyza. The following is from the same report and pertains to the use of the same predator, A. aphidimyza, against aphids, their normal fare.
Our strategy for A. aphidimyza is working very well. The trick is making sure that there is a slight surplus of A. aphidimyza, so as the aphid pressure increases, so should the release rate. You know you are low if the aphids start to show hot spots that don’t have an A. aphidimyza associated with it. A harsh correction, doubling or tripling the rate for the next two weeks will save the customer a lot of money and aggravation in the long run. — Brian Spencer
We’ll share others we think you’ll find interesting.
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: August 27th, 2008 at 11:10 pm →
This is an update, again quoting Brian Spencer:
There may be more.