http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2009/08/beneficial-insects-in-hydroponics/
Alien vs. Predator
By Urban Garden Magazine ⋅ August 5, 2009 ⋅
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Filed Under aphids, cutworm, fungus gnat, green lacewing, Issue 6, ladybugs, Nathan Jackson, nematode, pests, pirate bugs, praying mantis, spider mites, thrips, whitefly
We all know the old adage, “Your enemy’s enemy is your friend.” Well, it’s true in the indoor garden too. Are you going to let alien invaders wreak havoc in your indoor garden without putting up a fight? No sir. But before you reach for the pesticides, check out this amazing array of natural predators! They feed on garden pests and, in so doing, protect your plants. Awesome!
Natural predators (aka beneficial insects) have done a great job of controlling insect pests for millions of years outdoors. It’s the natural balance of nature that we rely on, even at the top of the food chain. Now consider your indoor garden for a moment. It’s a tiny microcosm of the great outdoors and, without natural predators, it’s heaven on earth for a would-be plant pest.
Think about it this way: outdoors, when a posse of aphids are munching on your veggies, they still have to watch their back for an advancing ladybug that’s eying them all up for lunch! If that same crew if aphids somehow manages to get into your indoor garden, well … can you imagine the look on their little aphid-faces? They might have well just found paradise! All those delicious plants to feed on and no natural predators to worry about! Happy days – for the aphids, at least. For you, it’s a fast track to aphid overload and a severely damaged or destroyed crop.
Many indoor growers, instead of resorting to pesticides, hire in some natural pest control. That’s right, you can mail order bags of natural predators, they arrive “live” or ready to hatch, and you dispatch them into your indoor garden! These bugs are totally safe for humans, your plants, and the environment. The pests gradually disappear, and the good bugs thrive. Don’t worry, they never become pests themselves, because the right beneficials only eat other pests, not plants. When your pest populations die off, they will too — unless they find more pests to eat.
Predators don’t tolerate most pesticides very well, so it’s very important not to apply residual pesticides (such as Malathion and Sevin) for at least a month before using predators. Temperature and humidity can often be adjusted to favor the predators over the pests, and close attention to recommendations will give better results. Often, these changes can be as simple as adjusting ventilation or watering routines. For example, increasing the humidity by increased watering, misting plants more often, or merely splashing water on the floor, will often help out the predators. Pests usually get plenty of moisture from plant juices, and they often prefer drier conditions. The small amount of time you spend creating more favorable conditions for predators will be well worth your while!
Remember, you don’t have to wait until an infestation to show up before deploying natural predators. In fact, many growers buy them as a precautionary measure (especially in high risk times such as the spring), figuring that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Keep in mind, your indoor garden is virtually defenseless without these helpful little critters so why not acquaint yourself with some new friends? They could very well save your crop without you even realizing it!
TARGET: Spider Mites
AGENT: Spider Mite Preds
SPECIAL SKILL: Enjoys high humidity, breeds faster than spider mites.
WEAPON ID: The three main spider mite preds are: Mesoseiulus longipes, Neoseiulus californicus, and Phytoseiulus persimilis. These are available as a triple-pack from some suppliers. Highly recommended.
BRIEF: Spider mite predators are small mites that eat only Spider Mites. They not only feed on spider mites and their eggs, they also breed twice as fast! Each spider mite predator sucks the juice out of about five spider mites a day, or twenty of their eggs. Different species of spider mite predators have their own preferred temperature and humidity. If you use a mix then each type will seek out their preferred “zones” in the plant structure. Predator mites do best with warm temperatures and high humidity. The more moisture in the air the better. (Spider mites hate high humidity.) They move quicker and reproduce faster than the spider mites. For best results apply one predator for every five spider mites, so you best catch that infestation early or deploy them as a precautionary measure.
Need extra reinforcements? Try Stethorus Punctillum. These specialist spider mite destroyers are actually tiny ladybugs which can eat more than 40 mites per day as adults. They eat spider mites at all stages and can find new infestations on their own by flying. Adult female spider mite destroyers lay up to 15 eggs per day. Just 100 spider mite destroyers are enough to start up a colony to protect an average home greenhouse.
TARGET: Thrips, Fungus Gnats, Cutworms and many more!
AGENT: Predator Nematodes
SPECIAL SKILL: Stealthy soil-borne pest killer
WEAPON ID: Steinernema & Heterohabditis
BRIEF: Predator Nematodes are some of the most useful pest controls to come along in years. They attack and kill more than 250 different insects, including fleas, thrips, fungus gnats, even insects as large as cutworms! Nearly any insect that spends a part of its lifecycle in the soil is likely prey for predator nematodes. They usually come packaged on a small piece of synthetic sponge that you rinse out in water. Then you can use any type of watering can or sprayer to apply them to the soil. Although the use of predator nematodes is well established for soil pests, some growers also use them on foliage pests as well. These (mostly greenhouse) gardeners spray nematodes on foliage in the evening, and then mist foliage throughout the night to keep moist conditions favorable to nematodes.
Special tip: If you need to get rid of thrips in high humidity conditions (70-85% relative humidity) choose the predator mite (Amblyseius Cucumeris) which is most effective.
TARGET: Thrips, Spider Mites, Aphids, insect eggs.
AGENT: Pirate Bugs
SPECIAL SKILL: Dispatch in darkness. Perfect for donor plants and plants in vegetative stage. Great when used in combination with specialist predators.
WEAPON ID: Orius insidiosis
BRIEF: Pirate bugs are general-purpose feeders about 1/20″ long, and both nymphs and adults possess a “piercing-sucking beak” which they use to pierce a hole and suck their victims dry. Pirate bugs prefer thrips larvae, but adult thrips are also killed as well as spider mites, insect eggs, aphids, and other soft bodied insects. Each adult pirate bug can eat five to twenty pests per day, and with heavier infestations even more are killed. Each female lays about two to four eggs per day, depending on the availability of food and the temperature. Over her three to four week adult lifespan, a female can lay 80-100 eggs. Pirate bugs don’t breed well during short day-lengths, so additional lighting may be used to provide a total of 15+ hours of light daily.
TARGET: Aphids
AGENT: Ladybugs
SPECIAL SKILL: Speed, agility, and persistence. Try a combo hit with aphid predators (Aphidoletes aphidimyza) at 72°-80°F (22°-27°C)
WEAPON ID: Hippodamia convergens
BRIEF: Ladybugs are a good second line of offence for use with more targeted controls. They prefer aphids, but they are general feeders and will eat over 5,000 soft bodied insects and eggs over their one-year lifespan. Their eggs look like clusters of little orange footballs, each laid on edge. After hatching, they look like tiny black “alligators” with orange spots. Extremely fast moving, they grow to 1/2″ long over 2-3 weeks, then pupate, usually on the top of the leaf, into another adult ladybug. One larvae will eat about 400 medium-size aphids during its development to the pupal stage. Ladybugs can be stored dormant in the refrigerator for up to two weeks as long as they don’t freeze or dry out.
Special tip: If using specialist aphid preds such as aphidoletes aphidimyza be aware that they have a soil-resting phase as part of their lifecycle, so don’t use predatory nematodes at the same time.
TARGET: Almost everything bad!
AGENT: Green Lacewings
SPECIAL SKILL: Lacewing larvae are land mines for pests!
WEAPON ID: Chrysopa rufilabris
BRIEF: Looking like tiny “alligators”, lacewing larvae enthusiastically attack almost any prey they can grab, using pincer-like jaws. After injecting a paralyzing venom, they suck the body fluids from their helpless victim. During the two to three weeks it takes lacewings to develop through the larval stage, they’ll eat up to 200 aphids or other insect eggs, larvae, and adults a week, growing up to 1/2″ long in the process. Then, they spin a silky cocoon, pupate a few days, and hatch into a beautiful yet fragile, light green adult lacewing with large, shiny eyes. Adults range in size from 1/2-3/4″ long, and feed only on honeydew, nectar, and pollen. Adults live between four and six weeks during which time females lay up to 200 eggs. Lacewing eggs are “planted” on foliage at the ends of short filaments, apparently as a means of protection. In a few days, more lacewing larvae (also known as “aphid lions”) hatch out and search for their first meal.
TARGET: Whiteflies
AGENT: Whitefly Parasites
SPECIAL SKILL: Disable young whiteflies and their eggs.
WEAPON ID: Encarsia formosa
BRIEF: Whitefly parasites, over their adult life-span of about one week, eat some young whiteflies (nymphs), and lay their eggs into many more. This kills the whiteflies, and produces a new generation of parasites about four weeks later. Unless you look very closely, you may never actually see adult parasites, because they’re quite small. It’s easy to see where they’ve hatched, though. When a parasite hatches, it chews a tiny exit hole, either on the front or back of the egg. Using a 16x magnifier, examine the eggs closely. When you see the exit hole, you’ll know the parasite has hatched.
Whitefly nymphs resemble small, white, oval scales, and never move. They sit in one place, mostly on the bottom half of the plant, usually on the underside of leaves. Within two weeks of being parasatized, the whitefly nymphs darken from their otherwise clearish color. After the parasites hatch, the blackened nymph “shell” remains behind. By counting the percentage of nymphs that have darkened, you can see how well the parasites are doing. By the end of the first month, 15-20% of the nymphs should be turning black in color, and after a few months good control is 75-80% parasatized nymphs.
Use at least one parasite for every square foot of greenhouse space, or every two plants. For the fastest control, make additional releases every two weeks for four to ten weeks, or until 80% of whitefly nymphs are black. Check pruned leaves for parasitized (blackened) whitefly nymphs before throwing any away. Instead, leave these under plants for a week or two, to make sure parasites hatch first.
Got an intense whitefly infestation? Try hanging stick yellow traps in your garden about three to five feet apart. Whiteflies are attracted to the color yellow so these traps can really help to knock down their numbers while your whitefly parasites get to work.
Image copyright: Nature's Control
TARGET: Almost any other insect they can handle
AGENT: Praying Mantis
SPECIAL SKILL: Badassness
WEAPON ID: Tenodera sinensis
BRIEF: Praying Mantis are beautiful insects with a voracious appetite, and are a delight to have in the garden. Being strictly carnivorous, they’ll eat almost any insect of a size they can overcome. Waiting in quiet ambush for hours at a time, when an insect comes wandering by they suddenly jump out and attack – always biting the neck first.
There are over 2,300 different types of Praying Mantis, with about twenty species living in North America. They have excellent vision and extraordinary reflexes. At rest, mantids hold their spiny forearms together giving the appearance they are praying, but that’s just a wayward personification. Preying more like! In this posture they are capable of quickly striking prey and holding it in their powerful grip . They will eat nearly any insect they can catch, and have even been known to eat small birds, lizards, and rodents on rare occasions! BAD ASS!
Eggs store in the refrigerator until ready for hatching, which takes two to eight weeks of warmth.
WORDS: Everest Fernandez and Nathan Jackson
Alien vs. Predator
By Urban Garden Magazine ⋅ August 5, 2009 ⋅
Email This Post ⋅
Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment Filed Under aphids, cutworm, fungus gnat, green lacewing, Issue 6, ladybugs, Nathan Jackson, nematode, pests, pirate bugs, praying mantis, spider mites, thrips, whitefly
We all know the old adage, “Your enemy’s enemy is your friend.” Well, it’s true in the indoor garden too. Are you going to let alien invaders wreak havoc in your indoor garden without putting up a fight? No sir. But before you reach for the pesticides, check out this amazing array of natural predators! They feed on garden pests and, in so doing, protect your plants. Awesome!
Think about it this way: outdoors, when a posse of aphids are munching on your veggies, they still have to watch their back for an advancing ladybug that’s eying them all up for lunch! If that same crew if aphids somehow manages to get into your indoor garden, well … can you imagine the look on their little aphid-faces? They might have well just found paradise! All those delicious plants to feed on and no natural predators to worry about! Happy days – for the aphids, at least. For you, it’s a fast track to aphid overload and a severely damaged or destroyed crop.
Many indoor growers, instead of resorting to pesticides, hire in some natural pest control. That’s right, you can mail order bags of natural predators, they arrive “live” or ready to hatch, and you dispatch them into your indoor garden! These bugs are totally safe for humans, your plants, and the environment. The pests gradually disappear, and the good bugs thrive. Don’t worry, they never become pests themselves, because the right beneficials only eat other pests, not plants. When your pest populations die off, they will too — unless they find more pests to eat.
Predators don’t tolerate most pesticides very well, so it’s very important not to apply residual pesticides (such as Malathion and Sevin) for at least a month before using predators. Temperature and humidity can often be adjusted to favor the predators over the pests, and close attention to recommendations will give better results. Often, these changes can be as simple as adjusting ventilation or watering routines. For example, increasing the humidity by increased watering, misting plants more often, or merely splashing water on the floor, will often help out the predators. Pests usually get plenty of moisture from plant juices, and they often prefer drier conditions. The small amount of time you spend creating more favorable conditions for predators will be well worth your while!
Remember, you don’t have to wait until an infestation to show up before deploying natural predators. In fact, many growers buy them as a precautionary measure (especially in high risk times such as the spring), figuring that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Keep in mind, your indoor garden is virtually defenseless without these helpful little critters so why not acquaint yourself with some new friends? They could very well save your crop without you even realizing it!
TARGET: Spider Mites
AGENT: Spider Mite Preds
SPECIAL SKILL: Enjoys high humidity, breeds faster than spider mites.
WEAPON ID: The three main spider mite preds are: Mesoseiulus longipes, Neoseiulus californicus, and Phytoseiulus persimilis. These are available as a triple-pack from some suppliers. Highly recommended.
BRIEF: Spider mite predators are small mites that eat only Spider Mites. They not only feed on spider mites and their eggs, they also breed twice as fast! Each spider mite predator sucks the juice out of about five spider mites a day, or twenty of their eggs. Different species of spider mite predators have their own preferred temperature and humidity. If you use a mix then each type will seek out their preferred “zones” in the plant structure. Predator mites do best with warm temperatures and high humidity. The more moisture in the air the better. (Spider mites hate high humidity.) They move quicker and reproduce faster than the spider mites. For best results apply one predator for every five spider mites, so you best catch that infestation early or deploy them as a precautionary measure.
Need extra reinforcements? Try Stethorus Punctillum. These specialist spider mite destroyers are actually tiny ladybugs which can eat more than 40 mites per day as adults. They eat spider mites at all stages and can find new infestations on their own by flying. Adult female spider mite destroyers lay up to 15 eggs per day. Just 100 spider mite destroyers are enough to start up a colony to protect an average home greenhouse.
TARGET: Thrips, Fungus Gnats, Cutworms and many more!
AGENT: Predator Nematodes
SPECIAL SKILL: Stealthy soil-borne pest killer
WEAPON ID: Steinernema & Heterohabditis
BRIEF: Predator Nematodes are some of the most useful pest controls to come along in years. They attack and kill more than 250 different insects, including fleas, thrips, fungus gnats, even insects as large as cutworms! Nearly any insect that spends a part of its lifecycle in the soil is likely prey for predator nematodes. They usually come packaged on a small piece of synthetic sponge that you rinse out in water. Then you can use any type of watering can or sprayer to apply them to the soil. Although the use of predator nematodes is well established for soil pests, some growers also use them on foliage pests as well. These (mostly greenhouse) gardeners spray nematodes on foliage in the evening, and then mist foliage throughout the night to keep moist conditions favorable to nematodes.
Special tip: If you need to get rid of thrips in high humidity conditions (70-85% relative humidity) choose the predator mite (Amblyseius Cucumeris) which is most effective.
TARGET: Thrips, Spider Mites, Aphids, insect eggs.
AGENT: Pirate Bugs
SPECIAL SKILL: Dispatch in darkness. Perfect for donor plants and plants in vegetative stage. Great when used in combination with specialist predators.
WEAPON ID: Orius insidiosis
BRIEF: Pirate bugs are general-purpose feeders about 1/20″ long, and both nymphs and adults possess a “piercing-sucking beak” which they use to pierce a hole and suck their victims dry. Pirate bugs prefer thrips larvae, but adult thrips are also killed as well as spider mites, insect eggs, aphids, and other soft bodied insects. Each adult pirate bug can eat five to twenty pests per day, and with heavier infestations even more are killed. Each female lays about two to four eggs per day, depending on the availability of food and the temperature. Over her three to four week adult lifespan, a female can lay 80-100 eggs. Pirate bugs don’t breed well during short day-lengths, so additional lighting may be used to provide a total of 15+ hours of light daily.
TARGET: Aphids
AGENT: Ladybugs
SPECIAL SKILL: Speed, agility, and persistence. Try a combo hit with aphid predators (Aphidoletes aphidimyza) at 72°-80°F (22°-27°C)
WEAPON ID: Hippodamia convergens
BRIEF: Ladybugs are a good second line of offence for use with more targeted controls. They prefer aphids, but they are general feeders and will eat over 5,000 soft bodied insects and eggs over their one-year lifespan. Their eggs look like clusters of little orange footballs, each laid on edge. After hatching, they look like tiny black “alligators” with orange spots. Extremely fast moving, they grow to 1/2″ long over 2-3 weeks, then pupate, usually on the top of the leaf, into another adult ladybug. One larvae will eat about 400 medium-size aphids during its development to the pupal stage. Ladybugs can be stored dormant in the refrigerator for up to two weeks as long as they don’t freeze or dry out.
Special tip: If using specialist aphid preds such as aphidoletes aphidimyza be aware that they have a soil-resting phase as part of their lifecycle, so don’t use predatory nematodes at the same time.
TARGET: Almost everything bad!
AGENT: Green Lacewings
SPECIAL SKILL: Lacewing larvae are land mines for pests!
WEAPON ID: Chrysopa rufilabris
BRIEF: Looking like tiny “alligators”, lacewing larvae enthusiastically attack almost any prey they can grab, using pincer-like jaws. After injecting a paralyzing venom, they suck the body fluids from their helpless victim. During the two to three weeks it takes lacewings to develop through the larval stage, they’ll eat up to 200 aphids or other insect eggs, larvae, and adults a week, growing up to 1/2″ long in the process. Then, they spin a silky cocoon, pupate a few days, and hatch into a beautiful yet fragile, light green adult lacewing with large, shiny eyes. Adults range in size from 1/2-3/4″ long, and feed only on honeydew, nectar, and pollen. Adults live between four and six weeks during which time females lay up to 200 eggs. Lacewing eggs are “planted” on foliage at the ends of short filaments, apparently as a means of protection. In a few days, more lacewing larvae (also known as “aphid lions”) hatch out and search for their first meal.
TARGET: Whiteflies
AGENT: Whitefly Parasites
SPECIAL SKILL: Disable young whiteflies and their eggs.
WEAPON ID: Encarsia formosa
BRIEF: Whitefly parasites, over their adult life-span of about one week, eat some young whiteflies (nymphs), and lay their eggs into many more. This kills the whiteflies, and produces a new generation of parasites about four weeks later. Unless you look very closely, you may never actually see adult parasites, because they’re quite small. It’s easy to see where they’ve hatched, though. When a parasite hatches, it chews a tiny exit hole, either on the front or back of the egg. Using a 16x magnifier, examine the eggs closely. When you see the exit hole, you’ll know the parasite has hatched.
Whitefly nymphs resemble small, white, oval scales, and never move. They sit in one place, mostly on the bottom half of the plant, usually on the underside of leaves. Within two weeks of being parasatized, the whitefly nymphs darken from their otherwise clearish color. After the parasites hatch, the blackened nymph “shell” remains behind. By counting the percentage of nymphs that have darkened, you can see how well the parasites are doing. By the end of the first month, 15-20% of the nymphs should be turning black in color, and after a few months good control is 75-80% parasatized nymphs.
Use at least one parasite for every square foot of greenhouse space, or every two plants. For the fastest control, make additional releases every two weeks for four to ten weeks, or until 80% of whitefly nymphs are black. Check pruned leaves for parasitized (blackened) whitefly nymphs before throwing any away. Instead, leave these under plants for a week or two, to make sure parasites hatch first.
Got an intense whitefly infestation? Try hanging stick yellow traps in your garden about three to five feet apart. Whiteflies are attracted to the color yellow so these traps can really help to knock down their numbers while your whitefly parasites get to work.
TARGET: Almost any other insect they can handle
AGENT: Praying Mantis
SPECIAL SKILL: Badassness
WEAPON ID: Tenodera sinensis
BRIEF: Praying Mantis are beautiful insects with a voracious appetite, and are a delight to have in the garden. Being strictly carnivorous, they’ll eat almost any insect of a size they can overcome. Waiting in quiet ambush for hours at a time, when an insect comes wandering by they suddenly jump out and attack – always biting the neck first.
There are over 2,300 different types of Praying Mantis, with about twenty species living in North America. They have excellent vision and extraordinary reflexes. At rest, mantids hold their spiny forearms together giving the appearance they are praying, but that’s just a wayward personification. Preying more like! In this posture they are capable of quickly striking prey and holding it in their powerful grip . They will eat nearly any insect they can catch, and have even been known to eat small birds, lizards, and rodents on rare occasions! BAD ASS!
Eggs store in the refrigerator until ready for hatching, which takes two to eight weeks of warmth.
WORDS: Everest Fernandez and Nathan Jackson
