Frankster
Never trust a doctor who's plants have died.
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The problems with Phytoseiulus persimilis is this IMO, once they tend to control the mites, they simply die off, for lack of any food, and if any remaining mites escape, they come back like gangbusters.
The work around is this, providing them some food source, after the apocalypse, ie. pollens. Keeping a pollenated male somewhere is the key to using beneficals, IMO.
These are Perimilis eggs... They lay them in the pollen folds, so the babies have something to chow on, in the interim.
Adult P. persimilis eat from 5-20 prey (eggs or mites) per day, they reproduce more quickly than the spider mites at temperatures above 28°C (82°F), and they feed on all stages of the twospotted spider mite.
The work around is this, providing them some food source, after the apocalypse, ie. pollens. Keeping a pollenated male somewhere is the key to using beneficals, IMO.
These are Perimilis eggs... They lay them in the pollen folds, so the babies have something to chow on, in the interim.
Adult P. persimilis eat from 5-20 prey (eggs or mites) per day, they reproduce more quickly than the spider mites at temperatures above 28°C (82°F), and they feed on all stages of the twospotted spider mite.