ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY FOR CONTROLLING SPIDER MITES

Spider mites (Acari: Tetranychidae) are widespread phytophagous pests that cause serious damage to agricultural crops in fields and greenhouses. Growers have great difficulty in managing spider mites because many of the species easily develop a tolerance to acaricides. To offset the ineffectiveness of chemical measures, there is an urgent need to introduce physical and biological measures through integrated pest management (IPM). Hence, we have attempted to introduce an environment management technology for controlling spider mites, specifically: 1) diapause disruption of the twospotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch and the Kanzawa spider mite T. kanzawai Kishida; and 2) effective use of the predatory mite Neoseiulus californicus McGregor (Acari: Phytoseiidae). Through our studies, we demonstrated the importance of environment management technology for controlling the spider mites. We also expect that physical and biological measures based on this technology will greatly contribute to the establishment of effective IPM for spider mites as well as other pest species.