Description

Do you suffer from sciarid flies in the potting soil of your plants? Or do you have a true thrips plague in your greenhouse or tunnel? Do you want to protect your bees against the Varroa mite in a natural way? Then Hypoaspis is an insect for you! Knowing more?

What is Hypoaspis?

Hypoaspis is a tube filled with moist peaty material and predatory mites Stratiolaelaps scimitus.

The predatory mites are beige in color and only 1 mm in size. This predator is very mobile, naturally lives in the top soil layer (1-4 cm deep) and feeds on harmful soil insects. In addition to springtails, thrips pupae and sciarid larvae, practice shows that this predatory mite also has a side effect on millipedes, root aphids and other harmful soil organisms.

The predatory mite is active at temperatures above 10 ° C. The ideal temperature is between 15 and 28 ° C. The predatory mites do not survive periods of frost.

Hypoaspis miles feels at home in moist (potting) soil (30% soil moisture) and can go without food for up to 7 weeks.
Control soil insects with Stratiolaelaps scimitus

In case you use Hypoaspis in your potting soil or in the garden:

Divide the predatory mites together with the filling material in piles over the soil or potting compost. The predatory mites will automatically leave the filler and search for food in the subsoil.

How many predatory mites needed per m2?

At high infection pressure and / or short cultivation time, 500 to 1,000 Hypoaspis / m² are used.
At low infection pressure and / or longer cultivation time, 50 to 500 Hypoaspis / m² are used.

Many chemicals are used in the fight against the Varroa mite. These chemical products are often harmful to our beneficial predatory mites for more than 8 weeks after application. So keep this in mind if you want to release Hypoaspis, otherwise 50 to 75% of the Hypoaspis predatory mites will die. If you have used something chemical and want to release predatory mites, please contact us to know the residue time.

Can I keep Hypoaspis predatory mites?

Hypoaspis are live predatory mites that you should release as soon as possible after receipt. The material can be stored for several days in a damp room at 12 to 15 ° C (cellar). However, as the material can dry out very quickly, the cardboard tubes must remain moist. Therefore, roll them in a damp towel. Never put the cooker in the refrigerator, it is too cold!