Associates Insectary
A beautiful California sunrise greeted us on the 11th floor of the Ventura Crowne Plaza.
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| Ventura, CA sunrise |
Our first stop for the day was the
Associates Insectary, 1400 E. Santa Paula St, Santa Paula CA This is a coop funded by member groves in order to raise beneficial insects to deal with crop pests.
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| Associates Insectary |
Bill, our host, shows us a vial of beneficial lady bugs.
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| Lady Bugs |
It's hard to believe but they have to raise mealy bugs as a food source for the beneficial insects. Here a flat of potatoes is allowed to send up shoots which are badly infected with mealy bugs. The tray of bugs is then put into the lady bug chamber where the beneficial lady bugs voraciously attack and eat the mealy bugs, stripping the potato tubers clean in a single night. The lady bugs then multiply and are harvested for release in organic orchards.
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| Mealy bugs as a food source for beneficial insects |
In another part of the insectorium squash is infected with scale in order to feed beneficial mites which prey on the scale.
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Intentionally infected squash with Scale
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Pacific mites are a crop pest which can be controlled with the Californicus mite which preys on the Pacific mite. This greenhouse raises Lima Beans at a high temperature which are then inoculated with the pest Pacific mites.
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| Lima Bean Pacific mite greenhouse |
Bill shows us the Lima Bean harvest of this morning from the greenhouse. These plants are covered with Pacific Mites which are used as a food source for the beneficial Californicu mite.
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| Infected Lima plants |
The mite damage caused by the sucking of the Pacific mites is clearly visible in this picture. The green chlorophyll has literally been sucked out of the leaves by the unwanted Pacific mites. These mites then become the food source for the beneficial Californicus mites so they can rapidly multiply as they devour the Pacific mites.
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| Leaves devoid of Chlorophyll from damaging mites |
