Other Biologicals

Chinese Praying Mantis Egg Cases

PRAYING MANTIS EGG CASES – (Tenodera aridifolia sinensis) Praying mantids are beautiful insects with a voracious appetite for almost any garden pest that they can overcome. In the fall the females produce egg cases that are attached to twigs, leaves, fences, etc. and may contain 50 to 400 eggs which will hatch into about 200 young mantids on average.

To release, attach the egg case to a twig or plant about a foot off the ground where there is cover to protect the babies. When hatching, the young crawl from between tiny flaps in the cases and hang from silken threads about 2 inches below the case. After drying out, the young disperse into the vegetation. Although it may take several weeks for the hatching to begin, once it starts it takes only a couple of hours to finish and the egg case does not change in appearance in any way, making it difficult to know when hatching has occurred.

Available January through September Only

Application Rate = 1-4 egg cases per garden
Click Here for info & application instructions.

Part #	Description	Quantity per Pack	Price	-
5P334	1 Egg Case	100-300 Eggs	$3.00
5P334	4 Egg Cases	100-300 Eggs	$11.20
5P334	24 Egg Cases	100-300 Eggs	$51.60
Buy a package of 24 egg cases to have on hand for your retail business.
Many insects fall victim to the praying mantis-caterpillars, flies, months, etc.
ALL ORDERS MUST BE RECEIVED BY NOON (MT. TIME) THURSDAY TO SHIP THE FOLLOWING WEEK All living beneficials will be sent by 2 Day Air or NEXT Day Air

Stiky Traps - Click Here for more information.

Many insects are attracted to the color yellow. These insects can be captured by hanging cards around your plants. Captured adults will not lay any more eggs on your plants. Yellow Stiky traps provide a means of controlling the flying stages of most pest insects.

"Fly-Barr" Insect Barrier - Click Here for more information.

When your exhaust fans are running, your intake vents are like a vacuum cleaner catching everything flying near the vents. Covering these intake vents with INSECT BARRIER will greatly reduce the introduction of unwanted pests into your greenhouse. Clean INSECT BARRIER reduces your airflow less than 5%.

MEALYBUG CONTROLS

Cryptolaemus montrouzieri

Also known as the 'mealybug destroyer', this small Australian beetle is used to control citrus and long-tailed mealybugs by hunting and eating the pests and their eggs. 'Crypts' have a very good track record in their role as a mealybug predator. Both the adult and the larva are predatory. This predator will undergo diapause unless supplemental lighting is used during the winter months. Can be used indoors or out.

Leptomastix dactylopii

This small wasp is a mealybug parasitoid, used to control the citrus mealybug. It lays its eggs into a mass of immature mealybugs. The eggs hatch and the wasp larvae consume the pests. Used mostly indoors, but can be used outdoors.

ALL ORDERS MUST BE RECEIVED BY NOON (MT. TIME)
THURSDAY TO SHIP THE FOLLOWING WEEK

(Cryptolaemus & Leptomastix will be sent direct
from the Insectary by Next Day Air ONLY!

SCALE INSECTS

Scale insects are the superfamily Coccoidea of the insect order Homoptera. About 5,000 species of them have been described. The scale insects are minute to small, highly specialized, and generally spend their entire life near the spot where they hatched. All of their forms that possess legs have one-segmented or two–segmented tarsi, bearing a single claw. Females are always wingless, but males may be winged (with one pair of wings) or wingless. Adult males have no functional mouthparts. First instars (crawlers) have functional legs and are very mobile, but later instars may be legless and sedentary. Immature stages and adult females feed on plant juices by inserting their long stylet mouthparts into a host plant and sucking out the juices.

The Cottony cushion scale Icerya purchasi, also known as the Fluted scale or the Australian bug.

Worldwide there are 21 families of scale insects. Margarodidae and Ortheziidae are considered "most primitive" because the females have abdominal spiracles and the males often have faceted eyes. The other families are considered "most advanced" because the adult females never have abdominal spiracles and the adult males have simple eyes. The 3 largest families are Diaspididae (armored scales), Pseudococcidae (mealybugs), and Coccidae (softscales).

Ceroplastes soft scales on Acacia karroo being tended for honeydew by pugnaceous ants Anoplolepis sp

Generally scale insects are considered pests destructive to agricultural crops. However, some species can furnish useful products well known in commerce, such as shellac (from Laccifer lacca), cochineal red dye from (Dactylopius coccus), crimson lake, and other dyes. Some species produce wax of marketable value, such as Chinese wax which is used for candles. Jewelry is fashioned from some of the hard shelled margarodids. Dactylopius spp. have been used as biological control agents for Opuntia cacti in Australia, Ceylon, India, Hawaii, and Mauritius. More than half of the successful biological control projects in the world have been against scale insects. Even with these impressive figures scale insects are still horrendous pests of agriculture. It has been estimated that if they were left uncontrolled by natural means and chemicals their potential damage could reach several billions of dollars in the U.S. alone.

Scale insects attack all parts of plants from roots to buds, flowers, and fruits. Some are subterranean in habit. Some produce honeydew in great quantities, whereas others, such as Diaspididae (armored scales) do not produce the excretion. Some species cause galls to form on their hosts, others cause leaf rolling, surface pitting or other tissue changes. Other species cause disease-like symptoms by injecting irritating salivary products into the host plant. The dispersal of coccids on a plant or plants nearby is by the active first instar or crawler stage. Over longer distances some crawlers may be spread by wind, but generally the movement of infested plant material in commerce has been responsible for dispersal over long distances.

SCALE INSECT CONTROLS

Aphytis melinus

This small wasp is a scale parasitoid, used to control armored scales such as; California red scale, yellow scale, San Jose scale, Oleander or ivy scale and others. It lays an egg underneath the pest. The egg hatches and the immature wasp feeds on the soft underside of the scale insect, thus killing it. The adult Aphytis will emerge, by chewing an exit hole in the scale's armor and will repeat the cycle. Use indoors or out.

Rhyzobius (=Lindoris) lopanthae

This small beetle is a predator of armored and soft scale. It is used to provide control of several scale species, especially the black scale by hunting and eating the pests and their eggs. They also consume some mealybugs.

ALL ORDERS MUST BE RECEIVED BY NOON (MT. TIME)
THURSDAY TO SHIP THE FOLLOWING WEEK

(Note: Scale controls will be sent direct
from the Insectary by Next Day Air ONLY!

Fly Parasites

These parasites kill pest flies before they can even hatch by laying their eggs inside the fly's egg. Fly species controlled include the common house fly, stable fly, blow fly, face fly, horn fly and many others. The parasites live for 3 to 4 weeks and each will control up to 50 pest flies.

Fly parasites come mixed with sawdust and will hatch during the following 10 days. keep the bag closed and in a warm place out of direct sunlight. Hold the bag up to sunlight until you see the small parasite crawling around inside the bag. Sprinkle the bags' contents as close as possible to fly breeding areas; i.e. compost piles, manure piles, fence lines, etc. Evening is the best time to release these parasites. Direct sunlight is harmful to them.

5,000 parasites released every two weeks will give good control for house fly breeding areas, 3 to 4 head of livestock, and 25 to 50 rabbits or poultry.

Part #

Description

Quantity / Pack

Price

5P480

Fly Parasites

15,000

$19.75

ALL ORDERS MUST BE RECEIVED BY NOON (MT. TIME)
THURSDAY TO SHIP THE FOLLOWING WEEK

All living beneficials will be sent by
2 Day Air or NEXT Day Air

Introduction
There are four leaf miner species which are common pests: the tomato leaf miner (Liriomyza bryoniae), the American serpentine leaf miner (Liriomyza trifolii), the pea leaf miner (Liriomyza huidobrensis) and Liriomyza strigata. Under natural conditions, the larvae of these species are well parasitized by several natural enemies. Problems with leaf miner have increased as a result of the use of broad-spectrum pesticides: natural enemies are killed and the leaf miners develop resistance to these insecticides.

Biology
The leaf miner goes through six stages, namely egg, three larval stages, pupa and adult. The adult leaf miners are small, yellow and black coloured flies. The larvae form mines in the leaves of plants. Pupation takes place mostly in the soil.

Damage symptoms

Larvae cause mines. This can lead to cosmetic damage, leaves drying out or even early defoliation. The latter may affect the yield.
Female adults cause feeding marks where they feed. This gives cosmetic damage to the plants. Indirect damage occurs when fungi or bacteria enter the feeding areas.

Caterpillar

Trichogramma Wasps will parasites over 200 species of moth eggs. A few that are controlled are codling moth, tomato hornworm, fruitworm, corn borer, corn earworms and tomato pinworm. They work by laying their eggs inside the eggs of the moth. When parasitized, the moth egg will turn black or brown.
Contact us for release rates for the pest you have and the crop being grown.

Part #

Description

Qty

Price

5P326

Trichogramma

100,000

$25.75

ALL ORDERS MUST BE RECEIVED BY NOON (MT. TIME)
THURSDAY TO SHIP THE FOLLOWING WEEK

All living beneficials will be sent by
2 Day Air or NEXT Day Air

To enhance control of caterpillar infestations, mix our Guardian/Lawn Patrol nematodes in a solution of Ultra-Fine Oil which extends the nematode's life by several days, and spray the caterpillars.
(in addition or as a first attempt)