Orius is a genus of minute pirate bugs (family Anthocoridae), small black-and-white predatory bugs about 2-3 mm long. They pierce prey with a beak and suck it dry. They are among the few released predators that eat adult thrips as well as larvae, and they also take mites, aphids and insect eggs. They can survive on pollen when prey is scarce.
In practice
Growers release Orius insidiosus or Orius laevigatus in veg to build a population ahead of thrips pressure, often with pollen supplements or flowering banker plants. They establish slowly and cost more than predatory mites, so they suit longer crops and mothers. A key point for cannabis: some Orius populations enter reproductive diapause under short days, which affects 12-hour flowering rooms; ask the supplier for a non-diapausing strainbeing reviewed. They are frequently combined with Amblyseius swirskii or Neoseiulus cucumeris.
Don't confuse with
- Predatory mites: much smaller and only take young thrips larvae.
- Thrips: slender, straw-coloured or brown, with fringed wings.
- Bed bugs: a different, blood-feeding family.
Slender insects about 1-2 mm long, chiefly western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis), that rasp leaf surfaces, leaving silvery streaks dotted with black frass.Tetranychus urticae, the commonest cannabis mite indoors: a 0.5 mm sap-feeder that stipples leaves pale and spins webbing, breeding fastest in hot, dry rooms.Small soft-bodied sap-sucking insects of the family Aphididae that cluster on stems and leaf undersides, excrete sticky honeydew and multiply rapidly by live birth.A non-crop plant kept in the grow to host harmless alternative prey or pollen, breeding beneficial insects continuously so they are ready when pests arrive.Mites, mostly of the family Phytoseiidae, released as biological control to eat pest mites, thrips larvae, whitefly eggs or fungus gnat larvae.A mother plant is a female kept permanently in vegetative growth to supply cuttings, so a selected genotype can be propagated as clones indefinitely.A warmth-loving generalist predatory mite that eats thrips larvae, whitefly eggs and nymphs and broad mites, and can persist on pollen.A predatory mite that eats first-stage thrips larvae and some broad and cyclamen mites; tolerant of cooler rooms and widely used in sachets as a preventive.Using living natural enemies, such as predators, parasitoids, nematodes and microbes, to suppress pests and diseases instead of, or before, chemical sprays.
