Like Hippodamia convergens, the popular aphid predators, C. montrouzieri are ladybug beetles. Cypts, with their shiny black body and dull-orange head and thorax, prefer to dine on mealybugs (they can clean up large populations!) However, as most beetles are, C. montrouzieri are very opportunistic and will eat pests other than mealybugs: other scale insects (their crawlers or immature forms), insect eggs, etc.
The large 5 mm. Australian, adult female beetles lay their eggs in the cottony egg-masses produced by the pests - one egg per mass, usually, and up to 10 of them per day, for up to 50 days. The eggs hatch into white, shaggy-coated larvae which, to the inexperienced, look like mealybugs. These, too, are fierce predators, growing up to 1 cm. long and consuming 250 or so small mealybugs and their eggs (they'll always eat the youngest first).
The life-span of these predators is roughly 3 weeks in their immature stages, then around 1 month as adults. The conditions for optimum performance will be between 64-91 degrees F with a relative humidity of 70% or greater. But these are optimum conditions, and not necessarily a prerequisite of successful implementation. Please note, however, significantly cooler or warmer temperatures and humidity fluctuations may hamper reproduction and development a certain degree.
They won't fly at temperatures below 56 degrees F. They will still work, they just do not undergo diapause (a quiescent state, hibernation), and thus will work more slowly and inefficiently.
Adult beetle presence, larval presence, reduction of pest numbers, "exploded" mealybug egg-masses. These are all signs that Crypts are hard at work.
Please note that shipping live animals will incur a higher shipping cost.
Crypts need to lay their eggs in the cottony egg-masses of their prey. Since long-tailed mealybugs don't lay eggs, but rather give live-birth, as aphids do, they provide no cottony masses in which the beetles can lay their eggs. This is not a problem if your site has more than one species (assuming the other species does produce the egg-masses). Crypts will eat immature long-tailed mealybugs with great joy, they just can't reproduce on them.
Aside from misting the site with water before releasing and doing so in the evening (sometimes not necessary in interiors), there are other things you can do to ensure the maximum number of beetles stick around. Flowering, pollen producing plants are a big plus to Crypts.
Pollen isn't the only thing these beetles will eat. They will also consume mealybug honeydew; they produce a lot. A honeydew substitute product may help encourage the beetles. Most suppliers ship Crypts, as mine does, with an in-flight snack of the stuff. And they never complain about the airline's cuisine.
C. montrouzieri are shipped as pre-fed, pre-mated, insectary-reared (for the citrus industry). Some popular prey of these beetles include: the citrus mealybug (Planococcus citri); the comstock mealybug (Pseudococcus comstocki); the obscure mealybug (Pseudococcus obscurus); the solenopsis mealybug (Phenacoccus solenopsis); the Mexican mealybug (Phenacoccus gossypii) and many other related species, even the long-tailed mealybug (Pseudococcus longispinus) can be consumed with greedy abandon, but only if it is present with another species which produce cottony egg-masses.
