Breeder’s Blend: Premium Predatory Mite Food
Once the pests are gone, predatory mites need something to eat. Breeder's Blend keeps a preventative release going a month later.
$10.00
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Goes well with
-
Special Blend Slow-Release Prevention Sachets
If you have nothing to feed yet.
$5
-
Neoseiulus californicus
If spider mites are the worry.
from $75
-
Amblyseius swirskii
If pressure is heavy right now.
from $65
-
Root Network
For the roots: mycorrhizae and microbes that help roots take up water and nutrients. Use at repotting, then a monthly drench.
from $15
How much, and how often
10g for a collection under 50 plants, 25g for 50 to 200, 50g for 200 and up. Dust the nodes and new growth with a dry brush every 10 to 14 days — a barely-visible snow, not a coating.
More about this dose
The three things people ask once they have their size. Open any of them.
Why more than one round?
Putting it out
- Use a dry brush. An artist's brush or a clean makeup brush. It must be dry.
- Dip and tap. Load the brush, then tap off the excess before you go near the plant.
- Dust the nodes and new growth. That is where the mites congregate. You want a barely-visible snow of pale yellow dust, not a coating — too much on a leaf can go moldy.
- Repeat every 10 to 14 days while you want the population held.
- Reseal the bag and put it back in the fridge. Humidity is what spoils it, not heat.
- Severe shellfish allergy? The Artemia cysts are a crustacean product — wear gloves, or have someone else apply it.
Everything else is optional. Get these four and the release has done what it can.
A cleaner way
On a display plant, tip small piles into bio-boxes or paper cups hung in the branches instead of dusting the foliage. Same dose, nothing visible on the leaf.
What it is for
Four questions, in the order a grower actually asks them: why feed a predator at all, is this the answer, which mites eat it, and how is it applied.
Why feed a predator?
You brought in predatory mites to protect your plants. The question nobody answers is what they eat once the pests are gone — or what they eat if you did the smart thing and released them before the thrips arrived.
Without food a mite population starves or wanders off. That is the quiet reason a preventative release so often looks like it did nothing: the predators were there, briefly, and then they were not.
Breeder's Blend is what keeps them on the plant and breeding. It is built from foods used to support predatory mites in greenhouses, in a bag sized for a houseplant collection: cattail (Typha) pollen, decapsulated Artemia cysts and inactive brewer's yeast. Nothing else, and no filler — no corn grit, no bran. Every gram in the bag is food.
Then: is Breeder's Blend the right answer to it?
Choose this if
Three moments earn it. Before the pests arrive — a preventative release only works if there is something for the mites to eat while they wait. After you have won, when the mites that cleared an infestation have nothing left, and feeding them holds the population instead of buying it again next season. And on a clean collection, where maintaining a standing generalist population costs less than repeated rescue releases. Feeding takes about thirty seconds a plant: nothing to mix, nothing to spray, no residue and no re-entry interval. You dip a dry brush, tap it over the nodes and new growth, and leave a barely-visible snow of yellow dust behind. That is the whole method.
Choose something else if
It is not a substitute for pest control — this feeds predators, it does not kill anything. It is also not food for Phytoseiulus persimilis, which is an obligate spider mite specialist and will not touch pollen or cysts, and it is not made for nematodes, springtails, ladybugs, lacewings, the Aphidius wasps, Orius, Cryptolaemus or rove beetles. And there is one moment to stop: during a heavy, active thrips outbreak, pause the feeding until it is under control. You want the mites hungry enough to hunt the thrips first.
What eats it, and what does not
The dividing line is pollen. The generalists on the left can live on it when there is nothing to hunt, which is exactly the property that makes a preventative release worth doing — and exactly the property this product feeds. Persimilis cannot, which is why the fastest spider mite predator in the range is also the one that starves out fastest once it has won.
What is in it
Three ingredients, and what each one is doing.
Pollen is the calorie source
Cattail pollen is high-energy carbohydrate — the everyday fuel that keeps mites active and on the plant between pests. On its own it is survival rations.
Cysts are what drive egg-laying
Decapsulated Artemia cysts carry the complex proteins and lipids that lift fecundity rather than mere survival. This is the fraction that turns a holding population into a growing one, and it is what a varied diet is for.
Yeast covers the rest
Inactive brewer's yeast supplies B-vitamins and micronutrients, supporting gut health and adult longevity. Three ingredients, all of them food.
Less than you think. Overfeeding is the one way to get this wrong — surplus food sitting on a leaf can go moldy, especially in still, humid air. A very fine dusting you can barely see is the correct amount.
How to feed, and how much
Contains shellfish. The Artemia cysts are a crustacean product, so with a severe shellfish allergy, wear gloves or have someone else apply it. Otherwise the only check is which mites you are running: if the answer is persimilis alone, this is not food for them and there is nothing here to buy.
About Breeder's Blend
Supplemental food for generalist predatory mites — a dry powdered diet dusted onto foliage. Not a pesticide, not a live organism, not a fertilizer.
New to feeding mites?
Five things that catch almost everyone the first time.
After you start feeding
What changes, how often to repeat it, and the one time to stop.
How you'll know it's working
By what does not happen next season. A fed population is still on the plant when the next pest arrives, so the release you make in spring is the only one you make.
The honest measure is whether you stop buying rescue releases. A standing generalist population costs less than repeated emergencies, and that shows up on an invoice rather than on a leaf.
Stop feeding during a heavy, active thrips outbreak. Hungry mites hunt harder. Resume once it is under control — and at low or early pest pressure, keep feeding throughout.
Getting it to you
What is in the bag, how it travels, and how to keep it.
What arrives
A sealed foil bag of fine dry powder, pale yellow, sold by weight.
It ships as goods rather than as livestock — no live-arrival window, no cold chain in transit, no clock running when it lands.
Put it straight in the fridge. That is the one thing to do on the day it arrives, and it is what buys you the twelve months.
When it ships, and when it lands
Shipping
This one just ships. No live-arrival window, no cold chain in transit and no dispatch-day rule — it goes out as ordinary goods, which makes it the easiest thing on the site to add to an order you are already placing.
When it lands
Fridge first, then find a brush. A dry artist's or makeup brush is all the equipment there is. Dip it, tap off the excess before you go near the plant, and dust the nodes and new growth until there is a barely-visible snow of pale yellow on them. Repeat every 10 to 14 days. Keep the bag sealed between uses, because humidity is what spoils it.
About what is actually in the bag
Three ingredients, all of them food.
Cattail pollen, decapsulated Artemia cysts, inactive brewer's yeast. That is the entire list.
No corn grit and no bran. Mite foods are commonly cut with carrier to make the bag look bigger, and a gram of grit feeds nothing.
So a 10g bag is 10g of food, which is worth knowing when you compare it against something twice the size for the same money.
If a bag arrives damaged
Split, damp or clumped solid. Any of those and we replace it — a powder that has taken on moisture is finished, and no amount of drying brings it back.
Humidity is the enemy here, not heat. Which is why it goes in the fridge sealed rather than open.
Why this one is easy
Mites, nematodes, eggs — the rest of the catalog. Not this. A sealed bag of powder either arrived intact and dry or it did not.
A bag that arrives split, damp or clumped is a replacement. Email info@fgmnnursery.com with your order number; there is no diagnostic to run.
Seventy-two hours from delivery, either way, with your order number. Replacement or store credit, your pick.
What it does not reach
Three gaps this page has already named, and the beneficial that closes each one.
Food only helps once there is a population
Dusting a plant that has no predatory mites on it feeds nothing. If you are starting from scratch, the sachets are the usual first move — four pollen-feeding species hung as a breeding colony, releasing for four to six weeks — and this is what keeps them going once the sachet is spent.
Californicus eats this. Persimilis does not.
Persimilis is the fastest spider mite predator we sell and it starves out the moment it wins, because pollen is no use to it. Neoseiulus californicus takes the same pest a little more slowly and eats pollen — so it is the spider mite predator you can actually keep on the plant between outbreaks with this.
More mites, not more food
In a heavy, active outbreak the instruction on this page is to stop feeding — hungry mites hunt harder. What the situation actually needs is numbers: a bottle release puts the whole population onto the leaf at once. Feed again once it is back under control, which is how you keep from buying that bottle a second time.
Two small add-ons that make the rest work harder. Blue cards give you the dated count this page keeps asking you to read. Breeder's Blend is pollen and Artemia; it keeps the population fed through the lull when prey gets scarce.
Keep reading
Written by the people who raise and ship them.
- Pollen Feeds More Than Your MitesA pollen-fed Amblyseius swirskii kills 34–60% fewer pests than a hungry one. Whitefly control improved anyway, because there were five times as many mites.…Read it
- How Long Do Predatory Mites (and Other Beneficials) Work?The lifespan on the label is not what decides how a release goes. What does is whether the beneficials leave, starve, dry out, get…Read it
- Follow the Pests After ReleaseFollow pest activity and fresh plant damage after a predatory mite release, with consistent observations and clear steps for reassessing treatment.Read it
Questions
The Breeder's blend came in a bag instead of a jar (which isn't a problem) just figured I'd give that note. I also recieved 2 Swirski mite sachets for free, thank you! (If that was an accident just lmk I'll pay for them).
Hi Dillon! They were gifts. We throw something in from time to time. :)
Glad you received everything and are enjoying them!
PS If we did accidentally put something in there, we would NEVER charge you for our error. But honestly, it's usually either extra of what you bought or a few extra sachets.
Pictures are musleadinf as it came in a packet, but that doesnt distract the fact that it works.
Good stuff! Will buy more!