Abstract
Quantity, sex ratio, survival, fecundity, mobility, predation and feeding preference were investigated to assess the post-shipment quality of commercially available strains of Amblyseius cucumeris from 3 different companies supplying this product to growers in Canada. The quantity of live mites promised on the labelz was close to the number estimated from subsampling for companies A and C; whereas company B had provided only 66% of the number of mites on the label. The sex ratio of mites from company A was close to 1:1, whereas companies B and C had a greater proportion of females. All 3 products failed to meet the IOBC guideline of 7 eggs per female over 7 days at 22°C, although companies B and C were close to this standard. Survival of mites over 9 days was quite variable among companies. Only products B and C reached the IOBC standard of 80% survival over 5 days. Product A with only 58% survival on day 5 is unacceptable. Mobility of mites was good and similar for products B and C; whereas mites from product A were the least mobile. Predation tests indicated similar consumption of grain mite nymph in 24 hours for A. cucumeris from products B and C, whereas mites from product A consumed approximately 25% less nymphs in 24 hours. Feeding preference tests of adult predator mites from companies B and C indicated a preference for spider mite eggs rather than grain mite eggs.
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