Our bugs and beetles are not fond of cold nights and whilst they remained quiet over the last couple of months, it gave Nina and Yvonne time to upgrade the biocontrol facility. Our small shade house is fully secure with the intention of keeping roaming jewel beetles off their pending food plants.
We’re sure the little ones had a ball last summer, trashing two shade houses full of cats’ claw creeper. New plants have been potted and a fully secure shade house screen and clear patio door has been installed. Only time will tell if our hard work pays off.
Our leaf tying moth breeding cages have been relocated to their new 9 metre tent. The new enclosure will help keep the moths secure when catching and transferring them to their new breeding cages. While they took them time going into pupation in May, generation 6 emerged on time.
An additional two more jewel beetle tents are up and running, giving us a total of 10 tents. While we were aiming to release 100,000 jewel beetles by the end of January, the crazy weather patterns through a spanner in the works. Despite the weather, low humidity and drought conditions, we managed to release a little of 80,000 beetles and with 8 weeks still to go, you never know what could happen.
Another year has flown by and Christmas is just around the corner. So, from all the bug ladies of biocontrol, we wish each and everyone of you a very merry Christmas and an awesome 2020.