“How-to” Video of the Week: Checking the Quality of Predatory Biocontrols

In this week’s “how-to” video, we’ll continue exploring how to assess the quality of the biocontrol agents you receive. This video focuses on predators, such as mites, Aphidoletes, Orius, Dalotia (Atheta) and more.

Keep reading to find the link to the video and addional resources. The next few videos will look at quality control guidelines for other types of biocontrol agents, so make sure to subscribe to the blog if you haven’t already!

Video Description

All videos were made by the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, in collaboration with the Ontario Ministry of Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), and are applicable to both greenhouse floriculture and vegetable crops.

Title: Quality Checking Biocontrols: Predators

Initial Release Date: 2020

Details: In this video, we demonstrate best practices for quality checking a variety of predatory insects and mites that can be done in a commercial greenhouse with limited materials. The video also covers how to scout for different predatory insect life stages in your crop to check whether the biocontrol program is establishing, and how to distinguish between predator and prey mites when counting predatory mite products that are shipped with feeder mites. The predators covered in this video include mites, Aphidoletes, Orius and other immature predators.

More information related to this video:

• You can find the Quality Assurance Guide by the Vineland, Research and Innovation Centre here: https://www.vinelandresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Grower-Guide.pdf
• Learn more about biocontrol product quality standards used by the industry here: https://anbp.org/about/quality-assurance/
• Where to purchase an aspirator, if you don’t already have one: https://shop.bugdorm.com/index.php?cPath=2_28&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw8diwBhAbEiwA7i_sJajMMevXGLvldWok6JtwVCV4qqsSKzjQnNe3UJpFQwyceN40k6IzaBoCJDQQAvD_BwE
• Where to purchase emergence cages: https://shop.bugdorm.com/index.php?cPath=2_20&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw8diwBhAbEiwA7i_sJTP3aw6Fl7xffqSIVVdwv0u7-TaS7o3e8jRmv0-Kcl-DudW77LUPOhoC1s8QAvD_BwE

Just a reminder that purpose of these videos and the quality control guide is to help you learn more about what a “normal” emergence rate looks like, week-to-week, and to determine if any problems may have occurred with a particular product or shipment. Always work with your biocontrol supplier if you feel there is a potential issue. Remember that issues on-farm can affect product quality, too, such as improper storage. Refer to this blog post on factors that can affect predatory mite sachets as a great example where quality assessments and working with the supplier helped us solve a mystery!

Acknowledgements:

These videos were funded by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance (previously the OMAFRA-U of G Partnership). This is a collaboration between the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs and the University of Guelph to advance research and innovation that contributes to the success of the province’s agri-food sector and promotes rural economic development. Videos were made as part of the KTT Funding Program stream.

Funding was also received by the Canadian Greenhouse Conference.

We sincerely thank those that contributed to the making of these videos, including: Dr. Rose Buitenhuis (Vineland), Jesse DeHaan (Vineland), Dr. Sarah Jandricic (OMAFRA), Laxmi Khadka (Vineland), Cara McCreary (OMAFRA), Caitlin MacDonald (Vineland), Ashley Summerfield (Vineland) and Taro Saito (Vineland).

We also thank Omni Media for video production.

Disclaimer: the appearance of any products in these videos does not constitute endorsement by OMAFRA or the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre. Videos contain current information as of the initial release date. Some products or procedures that were not available or widely used at the time of filming were not included in these videos. Any products featured in the videos may currently be unavailable or discontinued.