the orius laevigatus It is a very voracious predatory bug that feeds on various insects such as butterflies, spider mites, whiteflies and especially Orius laevigatus. It is a natural predator of thrips for the garden and crops, larvae and adults.
Naturally, it is found in almost all of the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, North Africa, the Near East, the Azores, Madeira and the British Isles. Although currently it can be purchased from any garden insect dealer.
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Life cycle of Orius laevigatus
The life cycle of Orius laevigatus is related to ambient temperature, humidity, and available food, completing in about 15 or 20 days. The female lays her eggs on the leaves of plants or flowers where thrips plague is present and when the young are hatched they begin to feed on the thrips larvae and adults they find.
For the Orius to be an adult, it must go through up to 5 phases or larval stages. While feeding, it grows and loses its skin, up to 5 times. The young are orange or brown in color while the adult is black with silvery wings and has the ability to fly to move to other plants in search of food.
The Orius laevigatus has a sucking tip which consists of a kind of “needle” which stings its prey and sucks it in, one day it can consume about 20 thrips. If it does not find food, it can also consume other insects such as aphids or the eggs of the pests we talked about at the beginning.
They are guided by their antennae to be able to detect their prey because they cannot see very well. In the garden, it is advisable to release the orius when the crops are in bloom, so that they can eat pollen while the pests appear.
The minimum temperature they can withstand is 12 degrees and it is rare for them to die above 30 degrees in temperature because the hotter the better.
How to attract Orius laevigatus
There are plants that act as reservoirs for predators such that if there is no food in the crops the orius move to those plants to feed on pollen or other insects and if pests attack the crop, they move to feed on it. . We can plant around the crop or at least have some of the following plants in the garden:
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- Lavender
- magarza
- sea towel
- Lotus
- Aeonium
- sea rosemary
- bread and cheese
- guaydil
- Incense
- you tagged
- keyboard
- sage
- pennyroyal
A trick to find out if we have Orius laevigatus on a plant is to place your hand under the flowers and shake them to see if any fall off like the one in the following image.
Buy Orius from Koppert
There are various stores that ship predatory insects like orius in containers available to release them onto the crop. The orius can last up to 5 days without eating but fortunately if you live far away, the boats bring food for the trip being rare that we die.
At the time of release, it is recommended to do it early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The bottle must be gently mixed so that the release is homogeneous, it will be spread on the leaves of the culture or in the boxes of release.
The predatory bug Orius laevigatus produced by Koppert is able to survive up to five days without food.
Cultures where Orius is used
Although we can have it naturally in our orchards, in crops at a productive level the release of harmful predatory insects is widely used, normally they are used in strawberries, beans, melons, cucumbers, peppers , grapes, fruit trees and nurseries.
In home orchards we can buy orius koppert to release if we have these pests regularly or just want biological pest control in the orchard.
In this Entomopathy video with Jairo, they show us the orius live from the orchard.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QXLzYhirjLA
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