Beneficial Insect Profiles: Predators

Galendromus helveolus

Common name: Helveolus

Family: Phytoseiidae (phy to see id de)

Genus: Galendromus(gal en dro mus)

Species: helveolus (hel ve o lus)

ORIGIN: Florida

HOST MITES: Persea mite Host Plants: Avocado, Grapes, and others.

BIOLOGY: This predator has five life stages; egg, larva, protonymph, deutonymph, adult. As with all arthropods (insects, mites) their rate in increase is dependent on the temperature. It completes a generation in one to two weeks depending on the average temperature (12.6 days at 64 F, 4.8 days at 90 F). It lays about two eggs per day for two weeks and it lives about 30 days. It occurs naturally in central America and Florida on many plants including Citrus and Avocado. It feeds on a variety of pest mites including the Avocado Brown Mite the Six Spotted Mite and the Persea Mite.

USES: This predatory mite is well adapted to the Persea mite Oligonychus perseae. It can penetrate the dense protective webbing formed by the Persea mite to protect its eggs and it feeds on all stages of the pest.

SHIPMENT AND HANDLING: The predators are usually shipped in 15 dram plastic vials containing approximately 2 1/2 tablespoons of corn cob meal, a small amount of host mite eggs (food for predators) and approximately 1,000 active predators plus predator eggs.

AUGMENTATION: Releases of Helveolus can be made when the Persea mite is present and laying eggs. We suggest releasing 5,000/acre. Approximately 100 predators should be placed on each tree in the grove. Place a small paper lunch bag around a cluster of several leaves at the end of a branch and staple the bag to the leaves. Place the predators in the bag. The predators crawl onto the leaves and begin feeding on the Persea mite. They take about three months to spread around an avocado tree from a single release site.

PESTICIDES: Avoid using pesticides one week prior and one week after release of the predators. The Helveolus will tolerate aerial treatments of Omite reasonably well, once they become established. Ground treatments of pesticides that completely cover all the leaves on the tree will probably cause substantial mortality of the predator.

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