

Mass Rearing Beneficial Bugs to Control Pest InsectsBy Dennis
Senft June 30, 1997 Ingredients from the supermarket form the basis for new, cheap lab
rations for raising millions of beneficial bugs that will attack other,
crop-eating insects. An Agricultural
Research Service scientist first developed the new rations, called
artificial diets, for big-eyed bugs and lacewings. These two predators devour a
range of pests including whiteflies, aphids, scale insects, moth eggs and
larvae, and mealybugs. Good-guy predators have long been used as six-legged alternatives
to pesticides. Without a suitable artificial diet, however, the cost of
mass-rearing limits a good bugs market potential. The new lacewing diet
costs $2.50 a pound; a commercial diet of insect eggs can cost $300 a pound.
The new diets were developed by Allen Cohen at ARS Western Cotton
Research Laboratory, Phoenix, Ariz. The agency has applied for a patent on the
diets. The main ingredients include ground beef and beef liver. Fish
innards, oysters and meat and liver from other animals can be substituted.
Chicken eggs are added for stickiness, to hold together the diets other
components and nutrients. Lacewings and big-eyed bugs reared on the new diets
produce more offspring, often mature faster, and are up to 50 percent larger
than wild ones, according to the scientists studies. And with slight
modification, the diets work for other predators including a lady beetle and a
minute pirate bug. The new diets first large-scale use may be to rear big-eyed
bugs and lacewings to combat silverleaf whiteflies. Since 1986 they have been
major pests of U.S. cotton, vegetables and other crops especially in Arizona,
California, Florida and Texas. Experimental field testing may begin as early as
next year. A feature story about the new diets is in the June issue of
ARS Agricultural Research magazine. The story is on the World Wide
Web at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jun97/bugdiets0697.htm Scientific contacts: Allen C. Cohen and Thomas J.
Henneberry, ARS Western Cotton Research Laboratory, Phoenix, Ariz., phone (602)
379-3524, fax 379-4509, [email protected] and [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |