Biocontrol Tour of Ontario, Canada

Biocontrol Tour of Ontario, Canada

Sponsored by:New York State Integrated Pest

Management, New York Farm Viability Institute,

and New York State Flower Industries

Sponsored by:New York State Integrated Pest

Management, New York Farm Viability Institute,

and New York State Flower Industries

Say it with flowers - The tour got started with a visit to the Erie Basin Flower Trials in Buffalo

Write that down

Lots of information from Albert Grimm at Jeffery's

Greenhouses

Early flowering mums are used as a trap plant

for thrips at Boekestyn

Greenhouses

ID is essential!

Gotcha

Trap crops can be used as a distribution

point for beneficial

insects, in this case the thrips

predator Amblyseius

swirskii

They're tiny but fast

Looking at A. swirskii

predatory mites at Boekestyn Greenhouse

with Ed Boekestyn

Green jungle - Biocontrol works for greenhouse vegetables, too.

Mike Short, of

EcoHabitat AgriServices explains the

use of Banker

Plants at Waldan Gardens

Bob Newhouse

produces his own banker plants and

infests them with bird

cherry oat aphids as a food source

for the parasitoid Aphidius colemanii

Wasps you want

These Aphidius wasps fly

throughout the greenhouse searching for

aphids to parasitize.

Eggplants make good

whitefly trap plants in the

poinsettia crop at

Ravensbergen Greenhouses

Hey, over here!

Yellow pots and eggplants are attractive to

whitefly. Encarsia formosa and Eretmocerus

eremicus are used to control them at

Jeffery's Greenhouses

Ask the expert

Graeme Murphy of

OMAFRA in Ontario shows

growers parasitized

whitefly pupae on eggplant leaves

Can you see it?

Minute plant bugs (Orius species) can

come in through open windows and help out with pest control

Lots of places to hide

Orchardcreek Greenhouse

uses biological control to manage

several pests in their cut

gerbera crop

Beneficial beetle

Delphastus beetles will feed on all stages of whitefly

An impromptu stop at the

Stokes plant trials in the

Niagara Peninsula gave us a chance to stretch out legs and minds

Mark Yadon described the

many biological

control methods used at

Mischler's Greenhouse,

a retail operation

with a wide range of crops.

Slow but steady

Slow release packets of

Amblyseius cucumeris include an

additional food source for the

predatory mites so that

the population can increase in

the greenhouse

One stop shopping

This plant has it all - cards with

Encarsia pupae, corn cob grits on the leaves used to apply spider mite

predators, a sachet at the top

left for thrips predators, and a small canister

that was used to hold another type

of whitefly parasitoid.

Research in practice

Carol Glenister

describes a research

project she is running

at Mischler's greenhouse

Grower to grower

One of the purposes of the tour was

to help growers help

each other implement biological control in their own

greenhouses