Yes Brent, I use Sevin dust or Malathion liquid.
Its one or the other.
But they have been all I needed.
I've only had mites on a fig when it was just added to the orchard
comming from another source. Nobody's fault, it just happens.
Ive never had mites on established figs. Scales, yes.

Have fun
Doug

neem oil works great but the leaves may fall from the tree if the plant is in full sun after application. best as a dormant spray but what can you do. I try to use nothing and do things to increase my beneficials and many mites and other bugs get eaten. mites will pass FMV to your healthy trees so keeping them in check is important but if you do use pesticides try Nutrilife SM-90 or neem oil both are non-toxic, biodegradable, and environmentally friendly products.   

Here is a link to an informative flyer from a land grant university that might be useful https://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/factsheet/eriophyid-mites2010.pdf. 

It could be the combination of mites and fmv that together cause more symptoms.  I bet that cultural practices like making sure there is adequate fertilizer, pH, reducing stress from heat/lack of moisture, etc, can help too. 

Wow, it says to rotate chemicals

Sorry Doug I missed that you were alternating. I myself do not know much about pesticides so you sharing another way to do the same job is helpful. I probably should have looked it up.

I chose to not use neem because it is slow acting. Azatrol is made from the active ingredient in neem and is what I will be spraying as a follow up to get any survivors.

Hey! No big deal.
More than one way to kill a mite.

:)

Doug

So glad I found this thread! It looks as though there may be hope for my RDB trees after all. I thought they all had FMV, but today (it is 70 degrees outside) I found three mites on my little trees. These trees are quarantined to the back of the house on one windowsill and have never been outside here. I think the mites overwintered on the cuttings. Any idea what kind they are? The legs are red, the body a grayish brown. They do indeed run away if you try to catch them.

Here are some pics of the leaves and of a mite in my hand to provide an idea of size...he is indeed now deceased.

Edit - my pic files are too large and unfortunately I can't get them to post, sigh.

Hey Jenny, I set the image size on my cameras to 1 mb, it is a permanent fix for the future. Mite be easier to take new pics ;)

If the mites are large enough to see without a microscope then they are either spider mites or predatory mites. Predatory mites are faster and more mobile than spider mites, which mostly hang out and make thin webs that collect their "dirt". Predatory mites eat Fig Mites and I saw lots of them on infested plants.

-Brent

Lady bugs love mites. They eat em up. :). There's also a product called Kapow that seems to work pretty good on them. Both are natural alternatives if your looking to go that direction. I try to avoid chemicals at all costs but I understand sometime its needed.

I have 1 plant that has these on the bark. It grows ow and leafs show yellow dots.
Anyone can help?

Btw it scrapes of easily.

This looks like scale.   Do a search on the Forum here and you should find plenty.

Hoosierbanana, 

I read on one of your earlier posts that you go fossil hunting in NJ.  I've been trying to find a spot in NJ to do just that, but no luck so far.  Any recommendations?   

In particular I'd like to find some trilobites, but don't know if they have been found in NJ. 

Thanks. 

I went to Big Brook and Ramanessin a half dozen times and found some really great shark teeth, it is a nice area and fun to splash around in a creek on a hot day. There are trilobites in NNJ, lots of info available on various fossil forums there are many people there from NJ. Also PA has more sites not too far west. I think you need to break them out of rocks, good luck!

Thanks.  Never thought to check fossil forums....any you recommend?  

thefossilforum.com seems to be the most active, the NJ subforum has some good threads. I never joined up anywhere so can't say for sure that would be the best one.

suspect recent damage to my figs leafs  might be  from mites ?

so I goggled up some remedies ....there are many ...so !

I mixed up a quart of warm water ,a tablespoon  of olive oil , a teaspoon of lime juice and a few drops of dawn dish soap .

I SPRAYED  THIS concoction on both sides of the leaves .

we shall see if it solved the problem hummm..

 

Thanks, I'll check out that forum. 

Pino- How are you judging your mite levels: microscope, leaf symptoms? Their population is seasonal, in summer they reproduce faster than spring or fall and they are dormant in winter.

Aren't you concerned about spreading the mite to other collections?

You need at least 30x magnification to see these. So I think you are probably talking about spider mites? I agree they are not an issue.

I hate when people do this, but i am bumping this post due to the potential benefits learned from it. I have the same issue that Brent had with my figs forming spots, I have azamax already but just bought a bottle of Avid from ebay since i have a handful of plants that i think got infected from a plant i acquired last season and it spread to them. I want to try and stop them in their tracks. I will do my best to isolate them for now.

Once they go dormant, what do people recommend for mites - soil drench and spraying the limbs or should wait for bud break? Most of the plants are growing vigirously, but if the figlets keep getting disformed, whats the point.

Also - when should this be sprayed, evening time or morning?

No worries about spraying Avid during the day, just be sure it will not rain and wash it all off before it has time to dry. I used a surfactant with Avid, I don't think it is really necessary though because sprays stick to fig leaves very well. Dormant oils are recommended for eriophyid mites in general, as are "summer oils" at bud break. Sulphur seems to be the go-to spray for the fig industry, don't think any pesticides are specifically labeled for fig trees.  But notice they are for "control" not eradication, it takes something that will absorb into the plant (like Avid) and kill them when they feed to get rid of them all. After all they can be found inside of buds and small figs where sprays cannot reach them.

B• Horticultural soaps and oils: Apply dormant weight horticultural oils 7-10 days before bud break and again at bud break. Proper timing targets eriophyid mites and preserves beneficial arthropods. During the summer soaps and summer weight oils offer mite control or suppression. Proper timing can also target other common plant pests such as aphids. Test for phytotoxicity before spraying the whole plant. 

• Sulfur: Sulfur has long been used for mite control. Full coverage is necessary for control. Do not apply when temperatures exceed 90°F, or during periods of high humidity. 

Best of luck, I do still see pictures of leaves on forums and eBay that look like they could have fig bud mites, and the general attitude or fig viruses as completely benign (mostly from sellers, the truth!) makes identifying the problem that much harder. Researchers often make no distinction between symptoms of the 2. There are plenty of misidentified images of fig bud mite damage as FMV, many from respected institutions that cause confusion. We are truly in a pickle, growers for the most part are all on their own dealing with the problem and it is not something that gets brought up very often.

Here is a picture from "An Illustrated Guide to Plant Abnormalities Caused by Eriophyid Mites in North America" of fig leaves with fig bud mite symptoms.
 
And a picture from http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/119501/fig-growing-nsw.pdf of internal browning caused by fig bud mite feeding on fruits. I've seen some of this from time to time shown in pictures as well.

Interesting thread

Thanks Brent for responding so quickly. It def looks i have a handful of plants that have mites, truly disappointing. I plan on spraying with avid, would it best if i strip the leaves and figlets of infected plants, i know i wont get figs from them this year - just rather have better eradification. Otherwise i would need to spray all over correct (limbs, upper/lower leaves, buds) correct?

What kind of oils would be considered dormant oils? Neem? I have Azomax, not sure if that could used.

I believe I have same problem on one of my trees. I have placed it on other end of yard just in case as I was thinking it could spread to other trees. Also thinking of tossing this one out but don't have the guts to do so. Does anyone think I should toss it out as when winter comes I store it in garage with my other trees so scared it might spread on other trees?