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Mint as a reservoir plant for Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) recki Wainstein (Acari: Phytoseiidae) to control Aculops lycopersici (Tryon) (Acari: Eriophyiidae) on tomato

Marie-Stéphane, Tixier ; Philippe, Auger ; Martial, Douin and Alice, Charalabidis


2026 - Volume: 66 Issue: Suppl pages: 35

https://doi.org/10.24349/gibu-wwpf

ICA 2026 - XVII International Congress of Acarology, 20-24 July 2026, Montpellier

Keywords

Biological control Phytoseiidae Reservoir plants Mint Tomato

Abstract

Phytoseiidae are currently used to control mite pests in vegetable production, especially via inundative strategies. However, commercially available predators are unable to control pests such as Aculops lycopersici on tomato plants due to the physical and chemical barriers of the plant. Recently, it has been shown that Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) recki is able to overcome such barriers on Solanaceae. Furthermore, this species is naturally found at high density on Mentha suaveolens, suggesting that this plant could serve as a reservoir in vegetable production. However, two questions should be investigated before considering its use: (i) is the mint M. suaveolens also favorable to the pest mite Tetranychus urticae, (ii) does the predator disperse from the reservoir plant, inoculated or not with T. urticae, to adjacent tomato plants, infested or not by A. lycopersici. In climatic chambers (25°C ± 1°C, 16D:8N, 50 % RH), the first experiment was carried out to assess the potential of mint to act as reservoir for T. urticae. Five females were placed on each plant (15 replicates) and, two weeks after, plants were cut, mites extracted and counted. The second experiment was performed using large containers, with one mint at the center surrounded by four tomato seedlings (12 replicates). Thirty predatory females were introduced onto the mint, along with Typha angustifolia pollen. One week later, 10 females of T. urticae were introduced onto the mint and two over the four tomato plants were randomly infested with A. lycopersici. Twelve mints were infested with T. urticae, and 12 were left un-infested as controls. Four weeks after, plants were cut, mites extracted and counted. Mint was as favorable as tomato to T. urticae. The predator reproduced on mint even without prey and dispersed to tomato plants, reaching much higher densities on tomatoes infested with A. lycopersici. The numbers of T. urticae on the mint and the adjacent tomato plants remained very low, likely due to efficient predation. The proportion of predators found on tomato plants and the mint was not influenced by adding T. urticae to the reservoir plant. These results indicate that mint can serve as a reservoir for T. (A.) recki, even without prey and that the predator control T. urticae on mint sufficiently to prevent damage on adjacent tomatoes. Further research is needed to optimize predator density and improve reservoir plant configurations for enhanced dispersal.

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Article editorial history
Date published:
2026-07-20

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
2026 Marie-Stéphane, Tixier; Philippe, Auger; Martial, Douin and Alice, Charalabidis
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