© Benaki Phytopathological Institute
Milonas & Partsinevelos
82
predatory species
Cryptolaemus montrouz-
ieri
Mulsant (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) and
the parasitoids
Anagyrus kamali
Moursi and
Gyranusoidea indica
Shafee, Alam and Agar-
wal (Hymenoptea: Encyrtidae) are regard-
ed as most commonly used biological con-
trol agents (Chong
et al
., 2015). The releases
of the above parasitoids and predators have
resulted in very successful control of
M. hir-
sutus
in Central America (Chong
et al
., 2015).
The use of contact insecticides may re-
sult in scarce control of the scale population
due to the cryptic behaviour and the waxy
covering of the mealybug bodies. Therefore,
any applications should follow after care-
ful monitoring for the presence of crawlers
which are the most susceptible stage. Sys-
temic insecticides might have a higher ef-
ficacy on reducing
M. hirsutus
populations.
Nevertheless, application of insecticides
should be avoided when biological control
efforts are taking place. At present, no in-
secticide against
M. hirsutus
is registered in
Greece.
We would like to thank the two anonymous re-
viewers for their valuable comments.
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Received: 10 January 2017; Accepted: 26 April 2017
