White fly parasitoid

Encarsia formosa

 Encarsia female laying its egg into a whitefly nymph.

Note adjacent black, parasitise scale.

Target Pests

Greenhouse white fly

Crops suitable

Field and green house vegetables, cut flower and nursery crops.

General description

Tiny parasitic wasp with orange coloured abdomen and black head and thorax. Lays its eggs into second, third and fourth nymphal stages of whitefly. The encarsia egg then hatches inside the whitefly scale and the wasp larva feeds inside the scale. The scale will turn black within two weeks and a wasp will emerge soon after.

How to use

Supplied on cards each containing 100+ parasitised white fly scales.

Hook the cards onto a plant twig or on support wires etc.

Release rates

Protected crops:
Make weekly applications for 6 consecutive weeks of
2,000 parasites per 1,000 m2.

Field crops: innoculative applications of 2,000-5,000 per hectare.

Suppliers

Biological Services Loxton SA ph.08 8584 6977

Other biocontrol agents commonly used with Encarsia

Persimilis, Hypoaspis, Trichogramma wasps and Lacewings in greenhouse crops