Integrated Pest Management Guide

TRICHOGRAMMATID WASPS (HYMENOPTERA: TRICHOGRAMMATIDAE)

Trichogramma wasps are very tiny insects, 0.3 - 1.0 mm ( 1/16 inch) long. They are known to attack many lepidopteran eggs. They use their ovipositor to insert one or more eggs inside an host egg. Adult wasps will emerge from the host egg. Two species of Trichogramma native to British Columbia have been reared from blackheaded fireworm eggs. One was identified as Trichogramma minutum Riley and the other as Trichogramma sibericum (Sorokina) (Li et al, 1993). Field and laboratory experiments have been conducted by E.S. Cropconsult (Vancouver, British Columbia), on Trichogramma sibericum to analyse the potential of this species as a biological control agent against the fireworm. The tiny wasps are now commercially raised and available for release in cranberry beds to target eggs laid by second-generation blackheaded fireworm females.
 
 

Trichogrammatid wasp (photo courtesy of M. Gardiner)

Reference

Li, S.Y., G.M. Sirois, A. Luczynski and D.E Henderson. 1993. Indigenous Trichogramma (Hym.: Trichogrammatidae) parasitizing eggs of Rhopobota navaena (Lep.: Tortricidae) on cranberries in British Columbia. Entomophaga 38 (3): 313-315.

• Top of page
• Return to IPM Guide Index Page
• Return to BCCGA Home Page

©2000 Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada