Product Index

Trichogramma platneri - A native of western U.S. is recommended for western trees, avocados, ornamentals, orchards, and grapes. For western apple, pear, walnut growers as well as other Lepidoteran pests in the orchard. Adult wasps are yellow or yellow and black with bright red eyes, short antennae, and compact bodies. They look like gnats. A small hole in the host egg is visible if the wasps have emerged. Biology and life cycle: Females lay one or more eggs in the egg of a host insect. The larvae pupate inside the host egg, and adult wasps emerge seven to ten days after the egg is laid. Over fifty wasps can emerge from one egg. In warm weather many generations can be produced. Hosts include corn, cotton, cabbage, peas, tomatoes, soybeans, rice, citrus, ornamental plants, pecans, and forests.

Trichogramma minutum Parasitic Wasp-Recommended for ornamentals, orchards, grapes and trees, where the protective zone is five feet or more above ground level. Also useful in greenhouses and interiorscapes. Description: Trichogramma are pale-yellow micro-wasps, 1/100 inch long, smaller than a pinhead. They drill through moth eggs to deposit 1 to 3 of their own eggs depending on moth egg size. Target Pests: Over 200 pest moth species (armyworms, borers, cutworms, fruit worms, leaf worms, leaf worms, leaf rollers, loopers etc.) eggs can be destroyed by Trichogramma. Trichogramma prevents ravenous worms (caterpillars) from hatching out and devouring crops.

Trichogramma brassicae, minutum and platneri mixed all on one card- Trichogramma are among the smallest insects, having a wingspread of about 1/50th of an inch. Despite its size, this parasitic wasp is an efficient destroyer of the eggs of more than 200 species of moths and butterflies which are leaf eaters in the larval stage.

Heterorhabditis bacteriophora nematodes occur naturally in soil, but not at high enough levels to provide effective pest control. Inundative releases are necessary to reduce insect populations below economic thresholds. In some cases, recycling through host insects will occur to minimize the need for subsequent applications. Some target pests that have been controlled (to varying extents) by H. bacteriophora in field tests are white grubs, Japanese beetle, grubs, northern masked chafer, black vine weevil, strawberry root weevil, citrus root weevil, Colorado potato beetle, Root Knot Nematodes, cucumber beetles, red imported fire ant, several other soil-inhabiting insects, and filth fly maggots in manure.

Orius insidiosus, a general predator also called the minute pirate bug, is an aggressive thrips predator – possibly the most effective. It attacks and kills all mobile stages of thrips, leaf hoppers, including adult thrips and leafhoppers. Orius is aggressive – it consumes 12 thrips per day but kills many more than it eats. Minute pirate bugs are generalist predators of spider mites, aphids, thrips, leafhoppers, psyllids, white flies, insect eggs, and small caterpillars. They actively search for, pierce, and feed on their prey with straw-like mouth parts. Nymphs and adults can eat 30 or more spider mites a day.

Three species of predatory fly parasites mixed in your order: Spalangia cameroni, Muscidifurax zaraptor and Muscidifurax raptorellus.