Managing spider mites in almonds with pesticide-resistant predators

Abstract

Not available – first paragraph follows: During the past three years, we have investigated the use of pesticide-resistant strains of spider mite predator released into almond orchards as components of an integrated management program. This predatory mite, Metaseiulus occidentalis (Nesbitt) provides effective biological control of the Pacific and two-spotted spider mites, Tetranychus pacificus McGregor and T. urticae Koch, respectively, as well as the European red mite, Panonychus ulmi (Koch).