Miticides serve one main purpose: keeping crops safe from pests. However, if your miticide is also wiping out beneficial insects and predators, it may only be exacerbating the mite problem in the long run.
Beneficials consist of both insects that help crops thrive (honeybees, for instance) and predators that control the mite population (for example, predator mites and six-spotted thrips). Beneficials are key players in promoting healthy crops and higher yields, so ensuring their survival during miticide applications is necessary.
The Miticide Conundrum
When it comes to controlling pests, growers are in a tough spot. If there aren’t enough predators to take care of harmful mites, broad-spectrum miticides are often the first resort. However, many of these miticides will kill off both harmful and beneficial mites — and with beneficials out of the way, the harmful mites may come back stronger than ever.
That’s why many growers are turning to miticides that are soft on beneficials — in other words, they target pest mites only, leaving the predatory mites and helpful insects unharmed. With this kind of focused attack, the population of pests is knocked down and predator populations may take over in keeping the mites under control. Not only does this serve as a kind of “checks-and-balances” situation for the mites, it also means fewer miticide applications throughout the growing season — and thus less likelihood of resistance.
Soft on Beneficials, Tough on Pests
Arysta LifeScience miticides are some of the softest on the market, keeping beneficials largely intact while effectively knocking down common pests and harmful varieties of spider mites.
ACRAMITE®, for example, has a 15-year-long track record of proven protection against harmful mites with quick knockdown and long-lasting residual control — while still going easy on beneficials. KANEMITE® is another miticide that’s known to be soft on predator mites and helpful insects. It targets a wide variety of pest mites and has a short PHI so it can be used near harvest in most crops. KANEMITE pairs well with VIGILANT®, another miticide that’s soft on beneficials but tough on spider mites and pests. These two miticides together are ideal for rotational use and can help you form a robust integrated pest management program.
For more information on the full range of pest control products from Arysta LifeScience, talk with your PCA or contact your local Arysta LifeScience sales representative.
