Spider Mites and Persimilis
If you have fairly high spider mite numbers and are awaiting delivery receipt of your persimilis there are a few things you can do to help hold back the spider mites prior to release of the persimilis. A good hosing of the plant where possible will be very useful to wash off excessive spider mites and slow down their feeding and egg laying. A spray of pest oil ensuring the undersides of the leaf is well covered is an excellent method, be sure the plants are well watered prior to pest oil spray and avoid the hottest part of the day. Many natural insecticides for spidermites can be toxic to persimilis so please be sure when using a natural pesticide that it is not used after release. These two methods are great at reducing numbers of spider mites prior to release of persimilis but will not manage mites in the long term but persimilis will. Once you have spider mites it is very difficult to prevent spider mites re infesting with out a release of persimilis.
If in the unfortunate event that heavy rain or strong winds are present when you want to release your persimilis, if possible delay release as both of these situations are far from ideal. If such conditions do not stop after 48hrs of received delivery please contact us. These weather situations will not stop spider mites and in the case of wind can make them worse.
Persimilis can only feed on spider mites and are a natural spider mite control tool, once all spider mite food is exhausted they will start searching for food, if none is found they will disperse out of the area or die. They WILL NOT start eating your plants.
Provided your persimilis do not experience any chemical reside, toxic insecticide sprays or extreme hot windy weather persimilis should be an effective organic spider mite control, as persimilis is an organic spider mite killer. Preventing the need for organic spider mite sprays. Generally once a spidermite problem has been treated one of three things usually occur.
• Persimilis and spider mites set up a happy equilibrium and rising spider mite numbers are soon followed by an increase in persimilis stopping any outbreak of spider mites from occurring. Creating an ongoing organic way to kill spider mites.
• Persimilis eat all the spider mites then bugger off and you never have spider mite problems again. Leaving you with the long lasting effects of red spider mite biological control.
• Persimilis eat all the spider mites bugger off then spider mites re appear in the next season then you have to release persimilis again as a red spider mite treatment.
Any of these three scenarios of spider mite biological control can be monitored and seen developing by you.
Persimilis’s ultimate conditions are 30 Degrees Celsius and 75% relative humidity. They certainly still do work as a two spotted spider mite treatment quite effectively outside these conditions, but when relative humidity drops below 50% for long periods of time or the temperature falls below 4 degrees overnight their effectiveness as two spotted spider mite control is compromised. On hot dry summer days hosing of hard structures around plants or a nice showing of water will help with spider mite pest control as the persimilis do their job much faster.
BanItch is the use of soil dwelling predatory mites that are used to treat the eggs and larval stages of biting midges or sandflies. It is a property management tool that helps in significantly reducing the number of these nuisance biting pests in your gardens and lawns. If biting midges or sandflies are a problem for you head over to our dedicated BanItch section.
