In last Saturday’s ARS Webinar, Dr Lance Osborn shared the opportunity to control thrips in our garden by use of predatory mites and banker plants. Banker plants are grown in containers, making them mobile in the garden. The predatory mites, in this case A Swirskii, starts on the banker plant and then moves to the roses to enjoy the thrips. The banker plant recommended was ornamental chili pepper plants. Wondering if others have tried this or use this practice in their garden? Is there interest in learning more about this alternative to chemicals?
I attended Dr Osborn’s webinar where he discussed using banker plants to feed predatory mites. I reported the practice at our rose society meeting the next day. Rosarians in Louisiana are very interested in the trying this approach. We welcome alternatives to chemical control. We are very interested in ordering the sachets containing the predatory mites which feed on chilli thrips. Did Dr Osborn provide any information on where to purchase the sachets?
Dr Osborn referenced The Association of Natural Biocontrol which you can find online. This site contains a lot of general information as well as members/suppliers for biological control.
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Hi Diane,
Thank you for organizing such an interesting topic. I just tried to email Dr. Osborn to request the information he said he would send us if we emailed him and my email was blocked. May I send my request to someone at ARS and have it forwarded. I wanted to get the 4 articles he mentioned and also the list of suppliers. I am HUGELY interested in this topic as I don’t use pesticides at all. Would like to share this information with my San Diego Master Gardener group and my local rose society.Thanks so much. Rita
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Hi Rita
I have also asked for the white papers he mentioned so will keep an eye out for them. Dr Osborne did mention the association which I posted in the forum. It is really quite interesting if you take a look at it.
From what I have gathered, every region may be a bit different in banker plants and/ or insects that work. It would be a great project to pull this together across the country to provide some information.
I have ‘lsosborn@ufl.edu as his address with no bounce back
Diane
Thanks, Diane, thank you for your reply. I resent my email and this time it went through. I have a lot of beneficials in my garden as I don’t use any pesticides at all, and I am so interested in adding this extra layer of biological protection against pests…and also interested to experiment with his ‘banker plants’ but also see how the sachets would work attached to other companion plants planted in the ground amidst the roses. I agree that this would be a great project for us to do across the country. I’m in! Rita
Hi Rita. I am “in” too! Let’s see who else from our Rose Forum community would like to join us and then we take this off line and make it happen!
In case you are not following this conversation, Rita and I are going to work together on a small project to identify predatory insects for the garden - your garden - across various areas of the US. And how to best use these insects. I have already connected with some industry professionals to help us. If you are interested in joining this small project that would be great. Rita is from California and I am from Wisconsin. Would love to have some interest from other regions, Diane
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Dr Baldo Villegas also promoted the use of predatory insects in his webinars for rosarians. I was especially excited when Dr Osborne offered a method to introduce and keep predatory mites in the garden to control chilli thrips. Chilli thrips are a major problem here in central Louisiana for us who do not use insecticides. I am very interesting in using banker plants and introducing predatory mites into my garden. I am sure south Louisiana rosarians will be most willing to use the sackets and banker plants.