<div>Agriculture is the most important economic activity around the world with its contributions reflected by its share in the gross domestic product of countries. It ensures food security, provides raw materials for many industries and employment opportunities. Today, pest and diseases are among the main challenges plaguing the agricultural sector. More specifically, phytophagous mites are devastating many economically important crops worldwide. Tetranychus urticae Koch (Two-spotted spider mites), Raoiella indica Hirst, (red palm mites), Polyphagotarsonemus latus Banks (broad mites) and Panonychus ulmi Koch (European red mites) are widely known for their extensive damage to crops. To control these mites, farmers have incorporated the use of pesticides into their farming systems. However, chemical control comes with many problems such as insect resistance, detrimental environmental effects and various human health implications. As such biological control is an environmentally friendly alternative that uses bio-control agents such as predators, pathogens and parasitoids to control pests. In this review, it was found that predators and pathogens were the most widely used biocontrol agents, specifically, the Amblyseius spp. Berlese were most effective and widely documented. The available literature also suggests that for successful control of agricultural mites via biological control, there needs to be a clear understanding of the behaviors of these mites and the bio-control agents used. 
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Biological Control Methods for Agricultural Mites: A Review

Background: Investigation of predatory traits, which are mostly unexplored, such as prey consumption, reproduction rate and searching propensity, could offer crucial information for the selection of creative control agents.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: In this study, two sets of experiments were carried out, the first set of which was intended to assess the effectiveness of the search and the second set for the functional response.&nbsp; 
 
Result: The intake of T. urticae by S. pauperculus, Oligota sp. and A. longispinosus dramatically increased as predator density increased from one to eight, according to research on searching efficiency. However, when predator number increased, prey consumption per predator declined. The amount of prey consumed by the larvae did not increase despite the prey density quadrupling. Prey consumption by predators increased as prey density increased, while prey consumption as a percentage dropped as prey density increased, according to a functional response. When the number of prey increased from 50 to 800, the area where predators were discovered reduced.

Assessment of Searching Efficiency and Functional Response of Acarophagous Species against Red Spider Mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae)