Encarsia formosa Cards

Encarline biological control agent contains the hymenopterous parasitic wasp, Encarsia formosa. It attacks by host feeding on younger whitefly larval stages and parasitizing in the third and fourth larval stage of the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum.

Key Features

• High emergence rates.
• Easy to detect in crop because the parasitised scales are black.
• Parasite pupae are fixed within a “well” on a card with the thickness of the card protecting them from physical damage in transit. This ensures top quality pupae from which the maximum number of parasites will emerge into the crop.

Main uses

• Greenhouse whitefly

How It Works

• Prefers relatively cool conditions. Optimum temperature range is 20-25°C / 68-77°F. Egg stage to emergence of wasps is 25 days at 21°C / 70°F.

• Pupae attached to the card produce adult female Encarsia for at least a week after they are hung in the crop. Each of these wasps moves through the crop searching for whitefly larvae (also known as “scales”).
• When an appropriate host larva (third and fourth instar) is found, female wasps insert an egg into it. When the Encarsia egg hatches, the larva consumes the whitefly from within.
• Female wasps will kill more whiteflies than she parasitizes. In cases where she does not insert an egg into the host, she feeds on it, which increases her longevity and the number of eggs she can lay during her life.