The use of the predacious Phytoselid mite, Amblyseius cucumeris, and the entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana, for control of western flower thrips in commercial bedding plant production.

Note to readers, attached is the complete final report for FNE00-311.

The thrips counts were zero on all of the treated plants at the start of the trial. At the first sampling date of April 26th the marigolds and begonia treated with mites had an average of 3 and 1 thrips per plant respectively. The marigolds were in flower and tended to have a slightly higher count of thrips found mainly in the flowers. The untreated control plants had an average of 4 thrips and 3 thrips per plant respectively. There was no damage noted on the treated and untreated plants. These numbers were so low that there was no statistical difference between treatments.

• FNE00-311 Final Report