Has anyone else seen this?

What do you do about it?

Here are the clues:

It's mostly on the underside of the leaves.

It started to show up a few weeks ago. 

Cuttings are 3 months old or so.

Only on plants from 1 supplier.  

VDB and Sal's Corleone are the varieties.

Growing in a window.  Growing in professional mix with mostly clear water.

No visible bugs.

Sprayed with Copper 1x a few days ago.  Not really going away.

Just looking for ideas.  Normally Fig rust shows up late in the growing season.  never seen it this early, but hey, I'm new at this.

I'm not sure that's rust.  Could you give us a well lit close-up of the lower R leaf that's more severely affected?  Fungal rusts have orange or other colored lumps that stick out from the (usually bottom of the) leaves.

Not fig rust. Fig rust comes in spots of yellow and brown.
Yours look like red spider mite. If you take a soft tissue paper and wipe it and it comes off like rust, then it is probably red spider mite. Your condition might be too dry.

I used my disecting microscope and my scope attached to my Iphone.   I would post a video if I could.

It appears to be some sort of mite.  Not your average 2 spotted type though.  A type of Eriophyoid mite.


http://digimuse.nmns.edu.tw/Default.aspx?tabid=295

If it is long in shape like the diagram you posted above, then it is not red spider mite. Red spider mite is rounder.

Thousands of them crawling all over. Any thoughts? You can't see them with the naked Eye.

Maybe try Neem oil to kill the fig cooties. I would isolate that tree before it spreads to all of the others. Is it causing the leaves to drop or harming the tree in any way or just a nuisance to look at?

Fig Cooties.   That's a good name for them.   I have the Abamectin and Neem oil on stand by.  I'll spray them when I get home with 1 or the other and then follow up with the other if unsuccessful.   So far it's isolated to 2 plants and there has been about 2 leaves dropped from the base of the Sal's and 1 from the growing tip of the VDB.  I will let you guys know what works.

thanks

if it is stubborn like red spider mite, abermectin will be more effective in exterminating it. after that a regular spray of neem would be good preventive regime. neem has effectively prevented rust from coming back for me.

there's alway 50 gal drum of death and a bit of boy scout water to help. replacing VdB and Sal's will be much easier than replacing your whole collection.

I agree with Pete.

Update:

My dog looked at me funny when I said Mange Mites.

I used the dissecting microscope on 30x and examined several leaves from each plant.

The good news is that I got very good control with both products.   I could not find any adults moving around on the leaves on either plant.  These were very easy to control, but very scary at first.

The exact products I used:

Avid: Abamectin
Triact 70:  Neem oil

I switched chemicals/plants and reapplied.   In 4-7 days I will repeat.

I inspected several other varieties and found none on any of the others, but sprayed them anyway.


http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/factsheet/eriophyid-mites2010.pdf