2016 Volume 58 Pages 65-72
We evaluated the effectiveness of controlling Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) on tomato in commercial greenhouses by releasing Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) and sustaining the N. tenuis on banker plants (Verbena × hybrida cv. Tapian) from 2013 to 2015 in Shizuoka Prefecture. The N. tenuis colonized the tomato plants, and toward the end of the growing period, as the population density of N. tenuis increased, the population density of B. tabaci decreased. The rates of yellow leaf curl on plants were the same as or lower in the N. tenuis release plots, where selective insecticide was applied, than in the conventionally managed control plots. The N. tenuis population colonized the banker plants and remained present throughout the experimental period. No economic damage to tomato by N. tenuis was observed. These results suggest that a combination of N. tenuis and banker plants is effective for controlling B. tabaci and has the potential to prevent the spread of Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus outside the greenhouses.
