Chris and Mike, I am all for predatory/beneficial bugs. I have released lady bugs on several occasions and I raise orchard mason bees. But these little mites are wasting my trees. It is not about aesthetics. My Italian prune tree is in the prime of life (around 10 years old) but it is neither growing nor bearing much. Meanwhile my neighbor's trees are laden with fruit (indicating that it is not climatic or the wrong cultivar). And now my cherry trees have fallen victim.
Thanks for the Whatcom County Extension bulletin (I live just down the road). I do take solace in this little excerpt from it: "use a dormant oil to smother the overwintering females." That is advice I am going to take. Cheers, Steven ________________________________ From: Chris Reid <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 6:50:52 AM Subject: [Community_garden] tolerate the eriophyid mites - they are food for good 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 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090217/8784e0ff/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090217/6701b7b5/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
