Beneficial nematodes for pest control.

Excellent article on using beneficial nematodes for control of pests in greenhouses.
Boosting your BCAs

Free good bug guide for the garden

Looking for a way to ID those beneficial in your garden? This FREE printable pocket guide is a great tool to do that for you. Downloadable and printable these quick reference cards will be a big help in the garden, keeping gardeners from killing the good guys. A must for organic gardeners! FREE NATURAL ENEMIES GUIDE

Database for Insects, Mites and Nematodes

Need to locate Insects, Mites or Nematodes in culture? Natural Resources Canada has put together a database online to help locate them.

"The primary purpose of this database is to provide a comprehensive world-wide listing of producers and distributors who are willing to sell or donate live insects, mites or nematodes. It is intended to provide those in need with a current source for accessing live cultures and to give registrants the opportunity to expand their client base. Registrants listed on the database can be sorted by the viewer according to order, family, genus, scientific name, common name¹, use category, geographical region of production², or target pest of biological control agent..."

Name change for Hypoaspis miles

Time for yet another name change for one of the good guys. Hypoaspis miles, commonly called the soil dwelling mite, is now going to be called Stratiolaelaps scimitus. This mite is used for control of fungus gnats and western flower thrips. Photo from Syngenta Bioline


Where can you buy Stratiolaelaps scimitus (Hypoaspis miles) ? Syngenta Bioline, Applied Bionomics, BioBest, or Koppert.


Key to Adult females of Species of Stratiolaelaps (from Walter & Campbell 2002)

Texas is looking into the beneficials that work at night...

Entomologist Bob Pfannenstiel and other ARS scientists down in Texas have been looking into beneficials that come out and feed at night. The have been doing this for 8 years now and have discovered many interesting things. Like the Asian cockroach, Blattella asahinai is a predatory on moth eggs. They also found nocturnal cursorial spiders to be moth egg predators as well. Learn more by reading the article on the ARS USDA website! Working After Hours A Nighttime View of Insect Predation

Koppert launches biological control in Ecuador

Koppert, one of the worlds largest producers of beneficial insects and mites is opening a new facility in Ecuador. It will be called Koppert Ecuador Cia. Ltda.

More info ...

Diaprepes root weevil

Diaprepes root weevil have been a problem in Florida and Texas for many years. Now they have shown up in California. Luckily there are a few different treatment options available from pesticides to biological control (using beneficial nematodes). University of California has put together an excellent article with all this information. Diaprepes root weevil, a new California pest, will raise costs for pest control and trigger quarantines.

Beneficial Nematodes

Great article on beneficial nematodes - Research Entomologist Prescribes New Form Of Pest Control

Amblyseius (Typhlodromips) swirskii

Amblyseius (Typhlodromips) swirskii is becoming more and more important in the world of biological control. It is being used not only to control whiteflies and western flower thrips it is also being used to control chilli thrips, a pest that can be quite difficult to control. BioBest has put together a great fact sheet on swirskii and how to use it. Follow this link to read this helpful piece of literature. Swirskii-System

Plant parasitic nematodes better watch out!

After many years of waiting, Pasteuria usgae is now registered with the EPA. Pasteuria Bioscience developed the technology to be able to rear the Pasteuria on a large economically feasible scale. This fungus is looking to be among the most promising biological agents for control of plant-parasitic nematodes. Read more....

Floriculture Sector and Vineland Research and Innovation Centre Partner to Establish Biocontrol Research Program

Looks like Canadian growers are being very proactive in furthering the research on biological control. Floriculture producers in Ontario have made a four-year $200,000 commitment to partner with Vineland Research and Innovation Centre establishing a biocontrol research program. Read more.....

Growing a Greener World Podcast

Here is my latest guest appearance on the Growing a Greener World with Joe Lamp’l podcast. We talk about some of those summer garden pests and how to deal with them. Be sure to swing by Joe's site at http://www.joegardener.com/

And for those that missed it, here is my first appearance on the show where we talk about attracting beneficial insects, Japanese beetle control, beneficial nematodes & new biodegradable planting pots.

Go D'hara

Pesticides and How They Impact Biological Control Agents

Interested in learning how pesticide impact beneficial insect and predatory mites? Both http://www.koppert.com/ and http://www.biobest.ca/ have tables in their side-effects portions of their websites. You will need to know the active ingredient in the pesticide and the scientific name of the beneficial. Additionally Koppert has added a mobile website, http://www.koppert.mobi/ so while in the field you can learn about pesticide compatibility.

Go D'Hara

International IPM Symposium

I have just returned from the The Sixth International IPM Symposium in Portland, OR. It was more focused on agriculture than I would have liked, thought there would be some ornamental stuff but it was educational. I was most-impressed with the information presented by William Snyder of Washington State University. He presented the talk “Spatiotemporally Distinct Natural Enemies Have Synergistic Effects on Shared Prey.”


What Snyder’s team is looking at is when beneficial insects are around pest insects but have not been killed, the pests are more likely to be killed by beneficial fungus or beneficial nematodes. They think the beneficials stress the pest, making them more susceptible to the pathogens.


Also, researchers from the University of Florida stressed for thrips management the importance of conserving native beneficials. They have found that by spraying pesticides for western flower thrips it actually causes more western flower thrips problems in the long run. They said it is better to use spray products that are soft on the beneficials, and to limit those sprays so native beneficials can get to work. They also discussed the many different native species of thrips and how they can outcompete western flower thrips.

Go D'hara