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- From: "Bill Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT inil.com>
- To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles
- Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 09:12:04 -0500
The beetle being described here is NOT a beneficial, even
though it's a lady beetle, specifically the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle. It
is a pest on soft fruit, like raspberries, peaches, plums, grapes. They can also
be a pest in apples if the apples have a crack or wound they can get into. They
feed on the high-sugar tissue prior to hibernation. They bite because we feel
like soft fruit to them and they're trying us out.
Ever notice how foul they smell when you crush them? Try
crushing grapes with a few in the clusters. Wine made with the bettles in the
grapes ought to really make an impression.
That's why I call them a pest, not a beneficial. To make
things worse, we've had an introduction of their favorite food into the Midwest,
the soybean aphid. The huge populations of this aphid (which are here to stay)
support the population of this lady beetle. When the soybeans mature and the
leaves begin to dry up, the aphids begin to move to their overwintering sites.
The beetles begin looking for alternative food sources, particularly soft fruit.
They also look for their own overwintering sites. Our buildings are ideal.
This should be a new era of relationship with lady
beetles!
Bill Shoemaker
Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops Univ of Illinois - St Charles Hort Research Center
|
-
[Market-farming] Aisia beetles,
Paul Yeager, 10/10/2003
- Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles, Errol Castens, 10/10/2003
- Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles, Pat Meadows, 10/10/2003
-
Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles,
eknutson, 10/10/2003
-
Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles,
Jill Taylor Bussiere, 10/10/2003
- Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles, eknutson, 10/10/2003
-
Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles,
Jill Taylor Bussiere, 10/10/2003
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles, Nubian51, 10/10/2003
-
Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles,
Bill Shoemaker, 10/10/2003
-
Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles,
Mary Jo Forbord, 10/10/2003
- Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles, Pat Meadows, 10/13/2003
- Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles, John Hendrickson, 10/10/2003
-
Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles,
Mary Jo Forbord, 10/10/2003
- Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles, Bill Shoemaker, 10/13/2003
- Re: [Market-farming] Aisia beetles, Bill Shoemaker, 10/13/2003
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