I have been using beneficial insects in my garden for about 10 years with good success. I order the Attack squad every year from Gardens Alive. I also encourage a preying mantis population that not only eat insects (both good and bad) but are fun to watch. Any ways I was looking at Logees new catalog and noticed predatory mites ( phytoseiulus persimilis) and was wondering if anyone has any experience with them. I have never run across them before, They feed on spider mites and two spotted mites. Mites are not a problem right now for me, but they often show up around here in August.
Cold day here today with the wind but the forecast is suppose to bring nights above 32. Yeah.



Sally
Zone 5b
heat zone 4
Enfield Connecticut



http://community.webshots.com/user/sallycummings

I will be watching this with interest to see if anyone has any experience with them, Sally.

USDA Zone 7/8
Copper Canyon
North Central Texas

I've never used them but they are on my list of things I'd like to try. I discovered baby mantises last spring when I was cleaning up a brush pile left over from the previous fall. I grabbed a pitchfork full of brush & suddenly I was covered with tiny mantids! There must have been hundreds of them & the little critters were jumping & crawling all over me! They are really little bitty things when they first hatch. I left a pile again last year to see if I get more of them but this year I will watch for them. LOL

Linda

I thought the mantises were really cool when I lived in TX, but keep an eye out of you have hummingbirds...I've seen an ugly pic of a mantis eating a hummingbird it caught & I guess it's not such a rare happening.

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Isn't the preying mantis another species where the female eats the male after fertilization like the black widow? I read somewhere that this is why they have the name "preying" mantis.

USDA Zone 7/8
Copper Canyon
North Central Texas

yes the female eats the male during the "act". The praying comes from their posture, they hang around with there front legs folded together as if in prayer. Last summer we had one living on our deck that we would feed raw hamburger to with a pair of tweezers.
It was pretty cool.

Sally
Zone 5b
heat zone 4
Enfield Connecticut



http://community.webshots.com/user/sallycummings

Wow...a cow-eating praying mantis!! Sounds like something they'd make a Sci-Fi movie out of...lol.

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

Well, I hope they don't like donkeys because I have a lot of them here in North Texas !!!

USDA Zone 7/8
Copper Canyon
North Central Texas

(Carrie...I'll trade my 38 F. for you 62 F.....deal?!)

Patrick
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place

If we are playing "deal or no deal" Patrick, it is NO DEAL !!!!!

USDA Zone 7/8
Copper Canyon
North Central Texas