Rescued Hermit Crabs and bio-control for fungus gnats

On Friday I rescued some Hermit Crabs. Never having them before I found a site called the CrabStreetJournal. I spent all of Friday reading all of the information they had and lo and behold, when the subject came to mites in your Crabatat and on your Hermies, the solution was a predatory mite called Hypoaspsis miles.

These guys are used in greenhouses for control of fungus gnats and other gh pest problems.

Hypoaspis is well adapted to moist conditions in greenhouses in a variety of growing media, but does not tolerate standing water. Hypoaspis is currently used in greenhouses for control of fungus gnats. It feeds on fungus gnat eggs and small larvae and is most effective when applied before fungus gnat populations become established or when populations are low. It has been successfully used in bedding plant production, potted plants, and poinsettia stock plants. Hypoaspsis will also attack thrips pupae in the soil, but cannot be relied on for thrips control alone in a commercial greenhouse. It may, however, enchance biological control when used in conjunction with predators feeding on thrips on the foliage. In small-scale experiments this mite reduced emergence of adult thrips to about 30% of that in controls. The mite comes in a pasteurized peat mixture for commercial use.

Here is the link:

http://www.ipmofalaska.com/files/hypoaspis.html

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These don't harm plants?

Not at all!

I found that very interesting to read. I have to say honestly, it makes me itch! LOL I know there are tons of bugs out there and tons I'll never even see but still...I think it would be really cool to try them! The lowest number of them is not that high at all and if they truly work, they are priceless!