Biomite

 A pheromone…from a greek word, phero meaning  "to bear" plus hormone from the Greek word meaning "impetus" is a chemical signal that triggers a natural response in another member of the same species. There are alarm pheromones like watch out, food trail pheromones like follow this trail for your next meal, sex pheromones like Hey big boy…like what you see?, and many others that affect behavior or physiology. Their use among insects has been particularly well documented.

 So wouldn’t it be great to produce pheromones that give bugs the wrong idea that would lead to their demise? Well that’s exactly what Monterey Ag Resources out of California has done with a product called Biomite, a new organic miticide, that is now available. Monterey says that the minimum-risk biochemical miticide fits in well with mite control programs, integrated pest management and sustainable/organic practices. Biomite controls mites such as broad, citrus rust, European red, Pacific, two-spotted and Willamette and is registered for use on apples, grapes, hops, nuts, pears, among others.

 Randy Dodds, Manager of Organic Products for Monterey AgResources: “It’s a combination of 4 mite pheramones and it has arrestant-dispersant properties.” Amongst other things, biomite leads to the destruction of mite eggs.