imafan26
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Posts: 13961
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Broad Mites pest of the month

For years, I was frustrated by the young leaves of my broad leafed peppers curling and distorted every time in the early Spring when the weather was wet but the temp was relatively mild between 70-80 degrees. I could not see anything on the plant and it took a long to time to finally figure it out.

Everybody knows about spider mites. But they are not a problem until the hot dusty days of summer. Until a few years ago I never even heard of broad mites.

I had noticed later that a lot of the peppers had scars near the caps and I knew they were caused by mites. But, by then the mites were long gone and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

Peppers in the shade house every year would maybe get one fruiting and then the tops would be sucked dry. The tops would be distorted with the leaves curled downward and the center stunted in a ball.

I started looking for solutions and thought it was cyclamen mites which are more common and stumbled upon a picture of peppers that looked just like mine and they were caused by broad mites.

Mites are hard to get rid of no matter what kind they are. Keltane is the most well known miticide, but I don't know where to get it. Very few products are listed for miticides for home gardeners and almost none of them list broad mites (some do list spider mites), but most are only for ornamentals.

I have always used sulfur for treating spider mites. So, I treated the potted peppers by dipping them weekly in orchard spray which contains sulfur and pyrethrins. Wettable sulfur is hard to come by. Along with weekly dips, I culled and cut all the worst damage off and sanitized the bench and the floor with bleach every week. I did finally get it under control and when the weather turned drier and warmer, the broad mites disappeared until the next year. It is an annual problem because of the many hosts of broad mites. They infest vegetables and ornamentals alike. At least though, I know when they are coming and what to do.

There are chemical miticides that work, but they aren't that easy for a home gardener to get and they are really expensive.

However, sulfur and pyrethrins are effective and some horticultural oils can be effective as long as you start early and get very good coverage. You can't dip plants in the ground, but you do have to spray them thoroughly.

Neem is a horticultural oil that many people like to use. It can be phytotoxic, so care must be used. It did not seem to be as effective as other miticides like abamectin or Portal XLO, but it did work as a growth regulator and showed promise.

Summer and dormant oil were also effective in controlling broad mites.

I don't use soap on my peppers. It caused phytotoxic damage.

It was noted that it is always better to rotate products than to rely only on one product as pests may develop resistance over time.

https://www.syngentacropprotection.com/ ... tation.pdf

https://www.growingproduce.com/vegetabl ... reenhouse/

https://extension.unh.edu/blog/broad-mites-pepper

https://www.tnstate.edu/extension/docum ... heet-1.pdf

https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/broad_mite.htm

https://extension.psu.edu/broad-mites-I ... vegetables



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