I haven't had to add any more predatory mites. I have a stable population of them. Of course now that I said that, this will be the year my theories fail! hahahahaha
It seems to me that the way to keep the predators is to have biodiversity. When the russet mites are not eating your tomatoes, what's a predatory mite going to eat? They starve, a bit of dust blows in with spider or russet mites, and with all your predators starved and gone, they have at it.
So I try to always have all sorts of "weeds" all over between rows, and companion plants in rows, so that there is always a few pests in the weeds and the pests are live critters for the predators to eat. They never leave, and when a russet does blow in with the wind, he drops right into the arms of our friendly predator population. Muahahahahaha
I realise that is the
opposite of the standard advise. I am not going to advise someone to do the opposite of what experts say. I am not an expert. I generally do the opposite of the experts in all my gardening. Mostly it works, but I still can't grow an eggplant grrrrrrrrr Yet I still keep trying every year!
Got my first ever eggplant last year. But what expert has tree frogs living in their garden? Does anyone know how many bugs a tree frog eats? I don't, but it has got to be a lot!
BTW if you ever get lucky enough to spot a predatory mite at work it is REALLY cool to watch. They are tiny though. Really really tiny. But they are like miniature tasmanian devils! If I had one of those after me I'd find some other plant to eat. Scares me!
