great advice--those predatory mites are excellent beneficials...
---McG
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Reid" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 9:50 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] tolerate the eriophyid mites - they are food
forgood guys
Steven Garrett posted about using hort or dormant oil on eriophyid mites on
stone fruit trees (right, Steven? I am facing miles of posts to find your
post again, so will trust memory).
I found a U of California paragraph about this topic. First, are the levels
of mites at 300 per LEAF? if not, the IPM guys say to relax. A Washington
State bulletin I found said that treatment of this type of mite is NOT for
the trees -- it is for the worried tree owner.
We fear for our trees, but they apparently don't do much damage to the crop
itself (do you have a type that you have learned is going to hurt your
fruit?). The red spider mites that may come later are more damaging to a
fruit crop, from what I have read online in the ag extension literature.
Now, what to us (when we look at this eriophyid mite) is "ew, bugs" is not
the reaction of the insect good guys -- the predatory mites -- they say,
"MMM, Dinner!!!" No accounting for taste, but what it means is this:
tolerate the eriophyids now to "farm" yourself a nice little micro-crop of
predatory mites, who will patrol your trees and keep any later red spider
mites -- which truly are crop damaging, it says -- in check. Killing the
eriophyid mites now means less dinner and therefore less attractive living
conditions for free sentinels -- predatory mites that eat red spider mites.
Interesting stuff. Link to one of the sources of this info is below.
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/homehort/pest/eriophyd.htm
Chris Reid
Stamford, CT
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