Abstract
Predatory mites play the leading role in commercial augmentative biological control. They are mainly used in protected vegetable and ornamental cultivation systems to control phytophagous mites, thrips and whiteflies. Use in open-field systems and in animal husbandry is still limited. Phytoseiidae species are by far the most important group of commercially available mite biocontrol agents with about 20 species offered worldwide. Out of these, Amblyseius swirskii, Phytoseiulus persimilis, Neoseiulus cucumeris and Neoseiulus californicus are the most important ones, covering together about two thirds of the entire arthropod biocontrol agent market. The widespread use of these leaf-inhabiting predatory mites has stimulated research into their biology and we now have substantial knowledge on, for instance, the interaction between different predatory mite species, that helps to improve biocontrol programmes. Soil predatory mites, for example Stratiolaelaps scimitus (Laelapidae) or Macrocheles robustulus (Macrochelidae) for the control of sciarid fly larvae and thrips pupae are much less frequently used and also much less researched. This makes further development of biocontrol strategies using these mites more difficult. Currently, there appears to be no reliable method to quantify the abundance of these mites in soil samples. In studies at our laboratory, the frequently used Berlese-Tullgren funnels gave very variable results. We observed that soil predatory mites can even multiply during the extraction process. In addition to the control of plant pests, predatory mites can also be used to control parasites of animals like the poultry red mite, Dermanyssus gallinae. Good results have been obtained applying a combination of the predatory mites Androlaelaps casalis (Laelapidae) and Cheyletus eruditus (Cheyletidae) in laying hen stables. This paper provides an overview on the current status of commercial biological control using predatory mites and identifies research needs to make the currently available mite biocontrol agents even more successful and extend biological control with mites to other areas.
Highlights
Biological control is a key ecosystem service and an underlying pillar of integrated pest management (IPM) (Naranjo et al 2015)
In many parts of the world, augmentative biological control of insect and mite pests is common practice as part of the IPM strategy in greenhouse cultivation of vegetables, fruits and ornamentals and 80% of the revenue created by commercial biological control is created in protected cultivation (Pilkington et al 2010)
In the 1990s, 25% of the market was taken by the whitefly parasitoid Encarsia formosa Gahan, followed by the spider mite predator Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot (12%) and the thrips predator Neoseiulus cucumeris (Oudemans) (12%) (Bolckmans 1999)
Summary
Biological control is a key ecosystem service and an underlying pillar of integrated pest management (IPM) (Naranjo et al 2015). In many parts of the world, augmentative biological control of insect and mite pests is common practice as part of the IPM strategy in greenhouse cultivation of vegetables, fruits and ornamentals and 80% of the revenue created by commercial biological control is created in protected cultivation (Pilkington et al 2010). Mainly from the family Phytoseiidae play the leading role among the biocontrol agents used. This paper will (1) give an overview on the importance of predatory mites in biocontrol; (2) show research needs to improve biological control, mainly with regard to soil-inhabiting predatory mites and present some preliminary experiments on this; (3) describe the potential of predatory mites in the control of poultry red mite, Dermanyssus gallinae (DeGeer). Target(s) Whiteflies, thrips, mites Spider mites Mites Whiteflies Whiteflies Thrips Whiteflies, Tuta absoluta Thrips Whiteflies Aphids
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