Predatory Mites for Spider Mites?

[Hakumin]

So has anyone tried predatory mites for indoor growing? I've found some interesting reviews and anecdotes of using predatory mites to eradicate spider mite populations, and was wondering if it might be a good method to get rid of spider mites.

One website says that Neoseulus californicus is a good species for indoor growing....

While I guess fighting fire with fire, or in this case, mites with mites may not be for the squeamish, but according to my research, it seems to be one of the most effective methods of getting rid of spider mites as well as one of the safest of all methods with zero negative effects on the plant and humans (if you get past the negative effect of the idea of introducing more little creepy crawlies to your plants)

Thoughts anyone?

[camille1585]

Beneficial insects are a great way to control pests and commerical growers rely more and more on them. Keep in mind that they will never ever completely eradicate the pest, only keep their populations under control and keep the damage at acceptable levels. You will also need to renew the introduction periodically to keep good predator levels.

Another good predatory mite you could consider are Amblyseius californicus which is not picky about temperature and can do without food for a long time so less reapplications.

Of course all the work I've done with beneficials has been in a greenhouse environment, I have no idea how well they do indoors. I had attempted biological control of mealy bugs on my orchids indoors, but the good bugs all disappeared in a few weeks, I was finding them crawling up the wall on the opposite side of the room. MAybe I didn't have enough plants to keep them happy, in commercial greenhouses they have thousands of plants to roam over.