Predator: Neoseiulus cucumeris or Amblyseius cucumeris
This is a tan-orange predatory mite. Adult females consume up to 10 thrips per day and have a 30 day life span. They can survive on pollen and spider mites in the absence of thrips.
Optimal Environment: 70°F min.; moderate RH.
Use of Cucumeris:
| Predatory mites are distributed over the crop weekly or biweekly, or released in convenient breeding units in which several hundred mites reproduce several thousand predatory mites over a six-week period. You can purchase these breeding units as slow release bags (SRB) or use IPM Laboratories’ Release Points™. |  |
Predator: Orius insidiosus Minute Pirate Bug, Orius sp.
Minute pirate bugs (MPB) are small, predaceous bugs that kill their prey by attacking with their piercing mouthparts and sucking out the body contents. Both adults and nymphs are predaceous. Adults lay eggs beneath the surface of plant tissue, often on stems or near leaf veins. The eggs hatch into small, yellow nymphs that develop into adults in 9-25 days, depending on temperature. Adult Orius can eat 5-20 thrips per day. They can survive on pollen in the absence of prey.
Optimal Environment: 70-90°F, day length 11+ hrs
Predator: Stratiolaelaps scimitus = Hypoaspis miles
This predatory mite is a scavenger that eats thrips pupae and fungus gnat larvae in the soil. Adults lay eggs in the soil, which hatch in 1-2 days. The nymphs develop into adults in 5-6 days. The mites reproduce quickly, and few are needed to establish an effective population.
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