We tested two cultivars of barley and one of wheat as living mulch for the retention of indigenous natural enemies of pests of winter-harvested Welsh onion. ‘Hyakumangoku’ barley withered earliest and was therefore most suitable to precede soil hilling for the blanching of the onions in early September; it supported populations of Rhopalosiphum padi (Linnaeus) and Anaphothrips obscurus (Müller), which are food sources for the indigenous natural enemy Geocoris proteus Distant, and various predatory phytoseiid mites.
