Mites

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A wide range of mites attack many ornamental plants, as well as fruit and vegetable crops, but they rarely cause serious problems.

The most common mites in home gardens are two-spotted mites. These are sometimes referred to as red spider mite, as the young are an orange to red colour.

Rust, bud and broad mites are less common pests around the home garden, but can cause occasional damage.

Damage

The most common damage associated with mites is the ‘scurfing’ or mottled look that leaves get due to mite feeding damage. In very severe cases, this can cause leaves to die and entire plants to be defoliated and killed.

Mites attack a wide range of plants including fruit trees, vegetables & ornamentals.

Some mites cause more of a rust type of damage, and others feed on immature buds of plants that result in deformed or aborted fruit, flowers or shoots. Mites can also be involved in the transmission of viruses between plants.

Monitoring

Check fresh growing tips for the presence of mites.  Once severe damage is noted on leaves, control will be very difficult.

The damage is similar to that caused by thrips and other sucking bugs, so make sure it is mites causing the damage prior to making a control decision.

Control Options

There is a range of pesticides available for the control of mites, including “soft” options such as pest oil.  These sprays need to completely cover all pests as they work by suffocating the pests, and have very little residual activity.

Be sure to use the correct spray, as some pesticides actually cause mite numbers to flare up due to elimination of natural enemies!

Predators offer a better alternative, with longer lasting and cheaper control achieved.

Persimilis - Two-Spotted Mite Control

Persimilis have been commercially used to control two-spotted mites in a wide range of crops for more than 15 years in Australia.

Persimilis (L) and Two-Spotted Mite (R)

The advantage of using these predators is they do the work of finding and killing the aphids for you.  The need to apply a spray to every surface of every plant in the garden is time consuming.  Using predators gives you more time to actually enjoy your garden!

Typholodromus are also a predator of two-spotted mites, more suited to tree crops or hot climates. Green Lacewings are a good predator of a range of mites found in home gardens

For further information, email questions@bugcentral.com.au