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Pollen on-twine for food provisioning and oviposition of predatory mites in protected crops

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Abstract

The establishment of predatory mites on protected crops is affected by the availability of shelter and alternative food. We suggest that a pollen covered twine, coined here “pollen on-twine”, may provide these necessities when attached to the plant. We evaluated the effect of twine types and two pollen species on the establishment of Euseius scutalis (Athias-Henriot) and Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Henriot on pre-flowering pepper plants in a growth chamber. For both phytoseiids, rayon jute twine was found more beneficial while corn and oak pollen did not differ in their effect. Though populations of both predators were best promoted when twine and pollen were applied separately, E. scutalis population increased by more than tenfold and A. swirskii doubled when plants were applied with pollen on-twine. We propose that after further refining, pollen on-twine can serve as a feasible solution for predatory mite establishment on protected crops.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Bio-Bee, Israel, and especially Shimon Steinberg, Yehoshua Kaminsky and Arnon Alouche for their cooperation, collaboration and for supplying some of the materials and mites needed for this study. We are grateful to Yonatan Maoz for his technical support and Matan Ben-Ari, Alon Lotan and Prof. Ido Izhaki for their statistical guidance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Einat Adar & Moshe Inbar

  2. Department of Entomology, Newe-Ya’ar Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Ramat Yishay, Israel

    Einat Adar, Shira Gal & Eric Palevsky

  3. The Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Bet Dagan, Israel

    Samuel Gan-Mor

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  1. Einat Adar
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  2. Moshe Inbar
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  3. Shira Gal
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  4. Samuel Gan-Mor
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  5. Eric Palevsky
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Correspondence to Eric Palevsky.

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Handling Editor: Patrick De Clercq.

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Adar, E., Inbar, M., Gal, S. et al. Pollen on-twine for food provisioning and oviposition of predatory mites in protected crops. BioControl 59, 307–317 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-014-9563-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-014-9563-1

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