How to keep your bios happy Rose Buitenhuis
Banker plants Provide a food source and/or an alternative reproduction site for natural enemies Ensure a constant presence of natural enemies in the crop • Castor beans - predatory mites • Ornamental peppers - predatory mites - Orius
Orius banker plants greenhouse studies • Flowering ornamental peppers: Black Pearl, Purple Flash • Orius eat pollen in the flowers, lay eggs in the stems/leaves 7 50 Orius Mean Number of flowers Mean Number of Orius Flowers 6 40 5 30 4 3 20 2 10 1 0 0 28-Feb 31-Mar 30-Apr 31-May 30-Jun
Improve Orius banker plants? • Adding food to banker plants • Warm temperatures Vegetative 10 16 Flowering Warm greenhouse 14 Cool greenhouse Vegetative + eggs 8 12 Flowering + eggs Orius /plant Orius /plant 10 6 8 4 6 4 2 2 0 0 Jul. 21 Aug. 4 Aug. 18 Sept. 1 Sept. 15 March 28 April 11April 24 May 9 May 23 June 6 June 20
Supplemental food Predatory Orius mites Cattail pollen x Ephestia eggs x x Artemia cycts x x
!! Thrips are omnivores Predatory Orius Thrips mites Cattail pollen x x Ephestia eggs x x x Artemia cycts x x x Long term: predators benefit more through increased populations
Other strategies • Other pests – benefits of mixed diets (e.g. thrips and whiteflies) • Mulch layer with astigmatid (food) mites • Artificial fibres provide oviposition sites for predatory mites • Pollen on-twine (food and oviposition sites) • Volatiles If interested, ask me for references
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