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Photo - David Cappaert, Michigan State University, Bugwood.org
Early spring is the time to hang parasitic wasp (Encarsia formosa) cards up in new plantings of tomatoes and eggplant to protect these vegetables
from white fly. The cards are impregnated with wasp eggs. The eggs hatch, the wasps grow and the adult female lays her eggs into white fly larvae.
Many commercial tomato growers are now using these wasps as a chemical-free way of controlling white fly infestations in their glasshouses.
Text: Linda Ross