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user story

INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT IN GREENHOUSES

Eric Vereijken is the owner and director of an advanced, INCREASING RISKS
47-hectare tomato cultivation business. His enterprise is distrib- The risk of realising too late that gall mites have been active
uted across six locations in Brabant and Westland, two regions in continues to grow. If plants are harmed too much, they die and
the Netherlands that are of international signifi cance for the the damage is signifi cant. First, we tried to fi nd the gall mites
ornamental plant and produce industries. with a magnifying glass, but they were just too small. After that,
Thanks to his many years of experience, Vereijken has optimised I tried putting them under a traditional microscope at the offi ce.
the cultivation of tomatoes in greenhouses. However, there was That allows you to see them. However, that means you have to
one factor that threatened that success until recently: the gall pull samples from throughout the greenhouse, with the risk of
mite. It is a damaging pest that cannot be seen by the naked eye. new infections. The eff ect turned out to be very limited. It is
However, the eff ects of the gall mite are plainly visible. Vereiken diffi cult, if not impossible, to get a good idea of their spread
says “The mite consumes leaves and stems in the greenhouses. using this method. Furthermore, this approach is extremely
You only realise it once the leaves have begun to fade. By then, time-consuming and, ultimately, expensive as well”.
the gall mite has already been at work for a while”. The tomato
farmer noticed that, recently, this pest had appeared in his SUITABLE FOR OTHER PLANTS AS WELL
greenhouses more frequently and in greater numbers. Eric says “The gall mite is a growing problem for the cultivation of
tomatoes under grow lights. It is high time that for an eff ective
tool that can be used to determine the level of infestation and
required control eff orts quickly and well”. He expects that his
fellow cultivators can benefi t from handy, mobile, digital
Dino-Lite microscopes, just like he did. Dino-Lite can make just
as much of a diff erence for other plants with gall mites and Eric Vereijken says “In our experience, it works quickly and
diff erent pests. Dino-Lite appears to be a solution for promptly easily for the most part. Not to mention, you can fi lm with this
detecting mites, lice, parasites, spores and other disease carriers Dino-Lite tool. It is useful for convincingly showing others what
in the fl ower industry as well. is going on.”

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