MKelly
06-17-2009, 06:19 AM
Hi all, new to group and had an interesting thought.
A few years back I was teaching wildlife education. I used a variety of creatures for our classes. One thing we use to use during the programs was a variety of giant Millipedes. When we would get in orders of them they were covered in red predatorily mites. After a while the mites would just disappear.
We discovered that they had a symbiotic relationship with the millipedes. The red predatory mites fed on other mites that were a threat to the millipedes. The bad mites would group up around the breathing apparatus and soft fleshy parts on the millipedes and over time the millipedes would die. On a regular basis we ordered greenhouse predatory mites as a treatment for this problem.
I do not know if this has been tried as a possible non hazardous lets say organic treatment.
Just thought i would throw it out there.
Here is a link with some info:
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/predators/mitintro.html
Mark
A few years back I was teaching wildlife education. I used a variety of creatures for our classes. One thing we use to use during the programs was a variety of giant Millipedes. When we would get in orders of them they were covered in red predatorily mites. After a while the mites would just disappear.
We discovered that they had a symbiotic relationship with the millipedes. The red predatory mites fed on other mites that were a threat to the millipedes. The bad mites would group up around the breathing apparatus and soft fleshy parts on the millipedes and over time the millipedes would die. On a regular basis we ordered greenhouse predatory mites as a treatment for this problem.
I do not know if this has been tried as a possible non hazardous lets say organic treatment.
Just thought i would throw it out there.
Here is a link with some info:
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/predators/mitintro.html
Mark