FGMN Nursery
FGMN Nursery
Dalotia coriaria - Rove Beetle
Dalotia coriaria - Rove Beetle
Regular price
$20.00 USD
Regular price
Sale price
$20.00 USD
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Dalotia coriaria (Greenhouse Rove Beetle) is the "heavy artillery" of biological control. Unlike predatory mites that are confined to the soil surface, Rove Beetles are aggressive, winged hunters that can fly throughout your grow space to locate pest hotspots. These generalist predators are voracious eaters, consuming 10–20 prey items per day. They are essential for larger indoor gardens, greenhouses, and large bioactive enclosures where you need a predator that can patrol the entire area—from the soil level up to the base of the stems.
Field Notes
Dalotia coriaria
The beneficial
Species
Dalotia coriaria (formerly Atheta coriaria)
Common name
Rove beetle
Type
Predatory beetle — Staphylinidae
Size
3–4mm. Dark brown-black, long and narrow, with short wing covers that leave the abdomen exposed. Curls its tail up when disturbed
How it works
Actively hunts through the top layer of substrate and across the soil surface. Fast-moving and highly mobile — adults fly and will move between pots on their own
Egg to adult
Roughly 3 weeks at 70°F
Adult lifespan
Several weeks; females lay continuously
What it eats
Hunts
Fungus gnat larvae and pupae, shore fly larvae, thrips pupae in the soil
Target stage
Fungus gnat larvae and pupae. Also takes thrips pupae, which is the part most people miss
Eats opportunistically
Springtails, root aphids, small soil-dwelling larvae, mites, organic debris. Taken on encounter
Won't touch
Anything on foliage — aphids, thrips adults, spider mites, whitefly, mealybugs, scale
What arrives
Sold by
Count
Ships as
Adults, sometimes with larvae, in a vermiculite or peat carrier
Where it works
Where it works
Soil surface and top layer, and the greenhouse floor. Both adults and larvae are predatory and both hunt in the substrate
Optimal temp
60–85°F
Humidity
Moist substrate required. Won't work in dry media
Establishes
Yes, and readily. This is a colonizer — it builds a standing population in moist substrate and persists
Running it
Deploy
Immediately on arrival. Sprinkle carrier onto the soil surface, or make breeding stations in a few pots and let them spread
Release timing
Evening. Onto moist substrate
Refrigerate
No
Compatible with
Foliar predatory mites, beneficial nematodes, lacewings, ladybugs, Aphidius, Cryptolaemus, Diglyphus, Trichoderma T-22
Keep separate from
Springtails — rove beetles prey on them. Also competes with and predates Stratiolaelaps scimitus to some degree, though the two are commonly run together in commercial programs
Chemical interval
One day after neem oil or insecticidal soap. Never with sulfur, at any dilution
Safe around
Pets, children, plants
