Healed seed potatoes from test tubes are most often grown and adapted in winter or summer greenhouses and shelters. One of the most dangerous pests of potatoes in the conditions of vegetation facilities is the spider mite.
An Israeli agrotech company is using predatory mites to help farmers fight spider mites.
Phytoseiulus persimilis, a miniature arachnid, has long been used as a natural alternative to pesticides because of its particular appetite for the red spider mite, a greenhouse vegetable scourge that feeds on leaves, quickly killing plants.
Persimilis has several advantages for farmers over using pesticides: produce in the greenhouse is healthier, the rules for use are much simpler than when dealing with poisons, and, unlike pesticides, red mites cannot develop immunity against them.
But growing a predator was difficult and expensive, which raised the question of the viability of the solution.
Haaretz reports on an Israeli company, BioBee, which it says has developed a secret, patented method to mass grow this predatory mite in the lab. Scientists have succeeded in creating a food alternative to predatory prey that persimilis can eat while maintaining their appetite for red mites until they become available as a food source.
The company promises that its new production methods mean an endless supply of hunter mites to farmers in Israel and around the world.
But what to do with persimilis after the original pests are done away with? This shouldn't be a problem. Once hunter ticks run out of prey, they either leave or die.