I bought an assortment of beneficial mites. How can I tell if they are doing the job?

Jim Haddar

Well-Known Member
I got these from Amazon. This is the first time I have tried beneficials. The predators are supposed to be “A.cucumeris, N. californicus, P. persimilis. and A. swirskii.” I bought some sachets of N. californicus earlier but I didn’t see a lot of activity and was worried that the mites died in shipping. Supposedly the californicus will hang around after all the spider mites have been eaten and wait for more to show up.

I don’t know how I can tell if the predators are winning, because a lot of the leaves have been damaged already. I guess I will have to watch for those damn webs. Ugh. There are videos on YouTube that show predator mites in action. Gruesome but gratifying.

 

Jim Haddar

Well-Known Member
I looked at a couple leaves with a magnifying glass. I can see three kinds of tiny critters. Some are light green or maybe translucent. Others are larger and dark green or black. A few are smallish and red-orange. So far I have not seen any obvious predation.
 

Samwell Seed Well

Well-Known Member
I got these from Amazon. This is the first time I have tried beneficials. The predators are supposed to be “A.cucumeris, N. californicus, P. persimilis. and A. swirskii.” I bought some sachets of N. californicus earlier but I didn’t see a lot of activity and was worried that the mites died in shipping. Supposedly the californicus will hang around after all the spider mites have been eaten and wait for more to show up.

I don’t know how I can tell if the predators are winning, because a lot of the leaves have been damaged already. I guess I will have to watch for those damn webs. Ugh. There are videos on YouTube that show predator mites in action. Gruesome but gratifying.

First thing you do when you get a shipment of predatory mites is get them warm, a 70 degree enviroment is fine, spread or put out a 1/10 or a 1/4 of one sachet or small volume of their media and look at them under a scope.

if they are not active then shipnthem back.... have a scope/camera is best


Persimilis and callifornicus will be doing most of the mite killing but cucumeris will die faster in hotter enviroments and californicus in colder
 
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plumsmooth

Well-Known Member
IF you own predator Mites you need to own a USB microscope connected to your computer. Then you can examine whole leaves on Screen and maybe even get to watch a Intra-mite-battle!
 
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