Development and Evaluation of a Wax Immersion Technique Designed for Studies of Spider Mite (Acari: Tetranychidae) Population on Strawberries

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Abstract
A wax immersion technique was developed and evaluated for use in population ecology studies of Tetranychus urticae Koch on strawberries. This method prolonged the time period in which leaves were suitable for spider mite counts (2 weeks), thus increasing the number of leaf samples which could be collected and effectively counted at any given time. Since all T. urticae life stages were killed immediately following treatment in the laboratory or the field, problems associated with continued development or increased activity caused by handling were eliminated. Comparison of the wax immersion technique and an imprint method based on a protein-sensitive dye indicated that the wax immersion technique was more effective for calculating pretreatment counts of the developmental stages studied, and was therefore more suitable for estimating population density.

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