Page 23 - Griffin Gazette Issue 3 - 2018

The life cycle is temperature dependent, about 21 days with
temperatures around 70° F. Some BCAs enter into diapause Special on
as the days become shorter and the temperatures cool.
Diapause is similar to hibernation, a phase where the insect
or mite is not active until warmer temperatures return. Rove Botanigard
beetles do not enter into diapause. When you tally up the
attributes of the small but mighty rove beetle, it's easy to
see why they're good partners in year-round IPM programs.
Combined with other biological control agents (BCAs) that
feed on other life stages, rove beetles provide an important
component in breaking up the life cycle of important pests
such as thrips. They can also be valuable components of
a conventional pesticide program so long as compatible
pesticides are emphasized. (GGSPro can help you with
pesticide selection.) 20%}
In a moist environment, rove beetles can reproduce
successfully on a wide variety of soilless media such as peat
moss, pine bark, rockwool and coir. This allows growers to
maintain a high level of rove beetles at a relatively low cost.
For years, growers have placed rove beetles in small piles of
approximate 25 adult beetles with other life stages present
spread sporadically throughout the greenhouse on the floors,
along baseboards where moist soil or algae are present. The
high mobility of this predator makes the exact placement of
the breeding colonies less important. For concrete floors and {Save
other dryer environments, growers can place piles on the
surface of soilless media in containers that are kept moist
under the benches.

A recent innovation from Bioline Agrosciences has resulted
in a breeding station to further automate production of large
quantities of rove beetles, improving reliability while reducing
the cost further. They refer to the system as a breeder bucket.
The system begins with a specifically designed bucket that is
filled with media selected for this purpose. Once the media is
uniformly moistened, a 1 liter (500 beetles) tube of the rove
beetles is added along with 2 teaspoons of the provided
food. This mixture is tumbled within the bucket to ensure
good uniformity of the various life stages of rove beetle and
the food. The bucket is placed within the greenhouse out
of direct sunlight. There is a weekly recipe for the amount
of water and food that is
added, and the bucket BotaniGard 22 WP
is tumbled each time the 1 LB
additions are made. The #70-12521
rove beetles do the rest!
Regular Price: $87.20
GGSPro is great resource Special Price: $78.48
for assisting growers with
biocontrol, conventional
and blended pest control
programs. Allow us to Promo Code: GAZ18
assist you in developing Order by: 12/21/2018
a program with your Rove beetle adult feeding on fungus Call Customer Service Buy Online
production facilities and gnat larvae Photo credit: Bioline to order: 800.659.4346 www.onliant.com
AgroSciences
crops in mind.

GRIFFIN GAZETTE 2018 | 23