Biocontrol Tour of Ontario, Canada Sponsored by: New York State Integrated Pest Management, New York Farm Viability Institute, and New York State Flower Industries

Say it with flowers - The tour got started with a visit to the Erie Basin Flower Trials in Buffalo

Lots of information from Albert Grimm at Jeffery's Greenhouses Write that down Lots of information from Albert Grimm at Jeffery's Greenhouses

Early flowering mums are used as a trap plant for thrips at Boekestyn Greenhouses

ID is essential!

Gotcha Trap crops can be used as a distribution point for beneficial insects, in this case the thrips predator Amblyseius swirskii

They're tiny but fast Looking at A. swirskii predatory mites at Boekestyn Greenhouse with Ed Boekestyn

Green jungle - Biocontrol works for greenhouse vegetables, too.

Mike Short, of EcoHabitat AgriServices explains the use of Banker Plants at Waldan Gardens

Bob Newhouse produces his own banker plants and infests them with bird cherry oat aphids as a food source for the parasitoid Aphidius colemanii

Wasps you want These Aphidius wasps fly throughout the greenhouse searching for aphids to parasitize.

Eggplants make good whitefly trap plants in the poinsettia crop at Ravensbergen Greenhouses

Hey, over here! Yellow pots and eggplants are attractive to whitefly. Encarsia formosa and Eretmocerus eremicus are used to control them at Jeffery's Greenhouses

Ask the expert Graeme Murphy of OMAFRA in Ontario shows growers parasitized whitefly pupae on eggplant leaves

Can you see it? Minute plant bugs (Orius species) can come in through open windows and help out with pest control

Lots of places to hide Orchardcreek Greenhouse uses biological control to manage several pests in their cut gerbera crop

Delphastus beetles will feed on all stages of whitefly Beneficial beetle Delphastus beetles will feed on all stages of whitefly

An impromptu stop at the Stokes plant trials in the Niagara Peninsula gave us a chance to stretch out legs and minds

Mark Yadon described the many biological control methods used at Mischler's Greenhouse, a retail operation with a wide range of crops.

Slow but steady Slow release packets of Amblyseius cucumeris include an additional food source for the predatory mites so that the population can increase in the greenhouse

One stop shopping This plant has it all - cards with Encarsia pupae, corn cob grits on the leaves used to apply spider mite predators, a sachet at the top left for thrips predators, and a small canister that was used to hold another type of whitefly parasitoid.

Research in practice Carol Glenister describes a research project she is running at Mischler's greenhouse

Grower to grower One of the purposes of the tour was to help growers help each other implement biological control in their own greenhouses