Red Palm Mite

[Mark@PalmBeach]

For all those who love palms and many other tropical plants and live in Florida and the Caribbean, the red palm mite should have you very worried. This small mite has all ready invaded many of the islands and has now been discovered in Palm Beach. If there is not a remedy found, this insect is going to cause widespread damage and foreever alter the landscape here.

There was an article in the Palm Beach post on this pest.

Red Palm Mite Discovered in Palm Beach Gardens

More information from the  Florida Deptartment of Agriculture.

Florida Department of Agriculture Red Palm Mite Info

 

[ZoneTenNut]

Read an article in the Sun Sentinel this morning, on this as well. Reading through the dept. of Ags info. on this, looks like it could very well threaten ALL palm species. Lets hope it doesn't turn out to be so.

Roger

[www.dadluvsu.com]

I just heard it on WAY-FM...  Maybe this will give scientists and researchers (amatuer as some of us may be) an opportunity to combat this pest and afford us the opportunity to create/define and mechanism for control...  Pray for the farmers that could be affected by this potentially devistating critter.

:cool:

[SubTropicRay]

One word, Imidacloprid.

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Ray I'm with you...  I have effectively irradicated mites in my collection with chemicals...  I'm interested in how nature will handle the pest in "the wild."  Is there a predator?  Will we introduce one...  Sometimes chemical applications are not practical for a landscape scenario just simply due to size of specimen...  Certainly we should be able to combat the pest more expiditiously than so called "third world" nations?

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Although it can be a real chore to manage mites, it isnt impossible....although it will have to be a continuing effort.

Now, i haven't been in the biz since 04, but the last time i was involved with imidacloprid, it was only listed as an insecticide.....my experience, and some work done at the University of Maryland has shown that its application can actually foster mite buildup by affecting natural mite predators.

Avid (abamectin), Talstar (bifenthrin), and ultra fine oil will work if applied correctly.

The trick in managing any mite population is knowing the gestation period of the eggs  (5-6 days max), and the time from egg to adult....the gestation period will let you know how often to apply any miticide.....killing the adults generally will not work on eggs, so another population of mites will be present on the plant as soon as the eggs hatch.

Scouting the plant material for natural predation populations (there are predatory mites, too!)  is important too.......not spraying when theses controls occur on the plant will help a lot in controlling residual mite populations.

Hope this helps

Rusty

[xerophyte_nyc]

Anti-stress 2000, an anti-dessicant, incidentally works extremely well as a mite killer and preventer, and also is beneficial by reducing watering needs.  It is non toxic and does not hurt the environment nor kill the good  guys.  Try it out if you don't believe me.  I had 3 palms in pots that had mites, after I brought them indoors which normally causes populations to explode, I sprayed twice in a week with the anti-stress 2000 (in October), and there are no mites to this day.

The polymer seems to prevent mites from being able to suck on the leaves.

[Mark@PalmBeach]

(Rusty on Pine Is. @ Dec. 06 2007,09:48)

QUOTE

Although it can be a real chore to manage mites, it isnt impossible....although it will have to be a continuing effort.

Now, i haven't been in the biz since 04, but the last time i was involved with imidacloprid, it was only listed as an insecticide.....my experience, and some work done at the University of Maryland has shown that its application can actually foster mite buildup by affecting natural mite predators.

Avid (abamectin), Talstar (bifenthrin), and ultra fine oil will work if applied correctly.

The trick in managing any mite population is knowing the gestation period of the eggs  (5-6 days max), and the time from egg to adult....the gestation period will let you know how often to apply any miticide.....killing the adults generally will not work on eggs, so another population of mites will be present on the plant as soon as the eggs hatch.

Scouting the plant material for natural predation populations (there are predatory mites, too!)  is important too.......not spraying when theses controls occur on the plant will help a lot in controlling residual mite populations.

Hope this helps

Rusty

I think any chemical application will be impractical for any large palm tree. How is one going to spray a Coconut palm that is 30 feet in the air?  I wonder if any systemic application will work or is being researched?

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Mark.....there is equipment that can make those applications, but that would mean hiring an arborist and it has incumbent costs.

There are trunk injections that can be applied, one called Imicide....and it is listed for Red palm mite.....not sure if it needs to be applied by a licensed professional or not. ???

A qualification from my last post.....the active ingredient in Imicide is imidacloprid, and why it is affective against mites where the soil and foliar applications are not i do not know, but more research of current labels may turn that up.

Also, there are combo miticides that have ovicide action as well, which would lessen the amount of spraying, always a good thing to consider.

thanks

Rusty

[gsn]

Well it looks  to me like William discovered the red palm mite in palm beach county about a month and half before they found those up north.Granted I am no entomologist but these look like the same critters to me!

Are these red palm mites?

http://palmtalk.org/cgi-bin....l=mites

bottom post

I have the same critters on a seedling coconut ,that I am sure is from Homestead,purchased from Home Depot,But as I understand many of these seedlings come in from the carribean islands for resale out of the Homestead area?

William did you have any success getting rid of them?Did they migrate to any other palms other than the ones you first found them on?

thanks,

[www.dadluvsu.com]

I detroyed whatever kind of mites those were with TetraSan 5WDG...  I used a little bit higher dose than recommended and burned some of the leaves on my plants but the mite population is GONE.  They did not move to any other palms.  I think identifying the problem at a relatively early stage was key in terminating the population and preventing an epidemic in the shadehouse...  

:cool:

[Jeff Searle]

This could be something, should I say, very serious?? This could become an expensive and hard battle to win. And once their populations build up, it's only a matter of time some will find their way out to California, Texas, and Arizona via trucks loaded with palms.

Jeff

[SubTropicRay]

With a systemic, you don't have to spray the foliage.  A good root drench should keep the palm mite free for at least a month.

[gsn]

(Ray @ Tampa,Dec. 11 2007,06:42)

QUOTE

With a systemic, you don't have to spray the foliage.  A good root drench should keep the palm mite free for at least a month.

Ray,

As Rusty indicated in his post everything I have read on the web about Imidacloprid,   says that it is not effective on mites.

      " Imidacloprid has a wide range of uses – soil, seed and foliar. It is used to control sucking insects such as rice-, leaf- and plant hoppers, aphids, thrips and whitefly. It is also effective against soil insects, termites and some species of biting insects, such as rice water weevil and Colorado beetle but has no effect on nematodes or spider mites.    Imidacloprid can be phytotoxic (toxic to plants) if not used according to manufacturers instructions7, and it has a tendency to reduce seedling emergence and crop vigour."

With that said I am 99.9 sure that the Home Depot cocconut seedling I purchased has RED SPIDER mites.I have tried permethrine,(listed for mites),Malathion -Oil by Southern AG(also listed for mites). None of these have worked on killing the mites even after 5 to 6 day repeat applications. I applied these applications to every square inch of the seedling(heavily). The damn red things are crawling around the next day after spraying! They couldn't possibly go from egg to crawlers in one day could they?

Short of going Williams route (TetraSan 5WDG) which I don't beleive is available for residental use,plus it is very expensive,what is one to do, to combat these critters?

Should I just deep six the $12.00 coconut ,least I take the chance it comtaminates the rest of the palms in my yard? Or has that ship already sailed,and one stupid little coconut from down south contaminated my palms already?

Any advice will be appreciated!

thanks

[SubTropicRay]

Scott and Rusty,

I'm using an Imidacloprid based product to keep mites off crotons and it works like a charm.  Bayer's 3 in 1 for insect, disease and mite control is the bomb (literally) and kills mites very effectively.  

Ray

[gsn]

Ray,

I will give the Bayer 3 in1 a try,as nothing I have tried yet has worked! Just curious are you treating the crotons in a container enviroment or are they inground?

Is it possible that this product ,even though it is  Imidacloprid  based ,has something else in it for mites? thanks for the reply

Anybody else have any suggestions?

[SubTropicRay]

I'm treating things in containers and planted out.

Lowe's carried this product but no longer does (go figure).  The only place I've found it lately is Wal Mart.  Make sure it's 3 in 1 and not All in One.