California Ag Supply

Predatory Mite Newsletter
April 2008

Predatory Mites Now Available on Live Plants.

California Ag Supply is pleased to offer to our grower customers Predatory Spider Mites (Metasieulus occidentalis) available on live plants and not just in corn grit. This will help some of our organic growing customers where having the mites mixed in corn grit is unacceptable to their certifiers.

We can ship the predatory mites overnight for delivery the next day. The following are pictures of how we package the mites on live plants and send them.


Pictures 1 & 2 - We grow the mites on bean plants in the green house. At this stage the bean seeds have been sown but there is no germination yet.

Pictures 3 & 4 - The bean plants are about this large when we seed them with the Predatory mite as well as the Prey mite.

Picture 5 - The bean plants are ready to ship. Note the color of the leaves. There are many Predatory mites on the leaves. On one flat we have at least 10,000 predatory mites.	Picture 6 - This is the shipping box. Note the ice packets in the bottom to keep the roots cool.

Picture 7 - Note the box size	Picture 8 - We pull the bean plants out with the growing mix and wrap it into a ball.

Picture 9 - We dip the ball in water.	Picture 10 - We wrap the ball in a plastic bag

Pictures 11 & 12 - We tie up the ball so that it tight to the roots.

Pictures 13 & 14 - We place the plants, roots first, on top of the ices and bend over the tops.
	Picture 15 - We put the lid on the box and it is ready to ship to you overnight.