Suitability of organic matter, fungi and vegetables as food for Tyrophagus similis (Acari: Acaridae)

Abstract

We fed Tyrophagus similis on three organic wastes (cattle feces, sawdust, and rice straw), an organic fertilizer (rapeseed meal), three composts (made from cattle feces, rice husks, and rice straw), three fungi (Fusarium oxysporum, Pythium aphanidermatum, and Rhizoctonia solani) and eight vegetables (lettuce, cucumber, komatsuna, spinach, pak choi, garland chrysanthemum, Welsh onion, and tomato), and determined the materials' suitability as food from the fecundity of females. Rapeseed meal, fungi, and most vegetables were suitable. Organic wastes and composts were unsuitable. These results suggest ways to reduce spinach damage by T. similis: (1) Reduce the use of organic fertilizers such as rapeseed meal during mite season, (2) remove plant residues on the soil before spinach cultivation, and (3) reduce the use of immature organic materials, because they increase fungi that are suitable for T. similis.