Pear blister mites

General Fruit Growing
#1

No one ever wants a new pest or disease but this year it appears I have blister mites http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/insects-mites/factsheets/pear-blister-mite-and-pear-rust-mite. Will know soon enough how easy they are to control.

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Id disese please
#2

There may be a relationship with rust and blister mites Pear Rust

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#3

Please let us know what you do to control them.

#4

Clark,
I have them most on Blake’s Pride, much less on Harrow Sweet and all Asians.

I follow Scott Smith’s advice and spray at bud break with lime-sulfur. Works like charm.

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#5

I also used Scott’s advice when an Asian Pear was leafed out,even with flowers and sprayed with micronized Sulfur.Only one application was needed. Brady

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#6

Clark,

I wondered when this might start showing up in your orchard. You have a lot of pears now, which is why I suspect it showed up. Be wary of a possible heavy infestation of Codling moth, as more and more of your pears start fruiting. Here they can take 70% of the pears, but we have a lot of unmanaged fruit trees close by.

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#7

How are you diagnosing Blister Mites and what is the plan to control them?

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#8

I used sulfur alone for two years, not working very well for me. I agree that timing of spray is very important.

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#9

Dormant oil or neem is a good control for pbm.

#10

Used dormant oil and copper this year. They somehow showed up anyway.

#11

This is not as big an issues for me as it has been. I noticed a big difference between parafilm wrapped scions prior to oil/copper spray and the leaves that were sprayed. I think this is a pretty good indicator that the spray helps.

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#12

Clark,

Timing is pretty important for blister mite. Once they migrate into leaf buds, they are harder to kill. Just before leaf drop is the best time to apply the oil.

http://www.utahpests.usu.edu/ipm/htm/advisories/treefruit/articleID=4933

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#13

Thanks Olpea that makes more sense now since I hit them dormant this spring.

#14

Look what I just found on my multi-budded Harrow Delight/ Harvest Queen pear tree.

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I will try dillute neam spray. If that doesn’t work, then I might invest in some wettable sulfur per @scottfsmith’s old recommendations on GardenWeb. Unless someone has a better idea…

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#15

I am skeptical of neem for such things, it seems too weak. If you give it a go let us know how it works.

#16

Would you still recommend the wettable sulfur this late in the game?

#17

I have had good luck with it. I would prefer lime-sulphur this late though - read the label and apply the growing season dose. I think our spray amounts guide also gives the growing season rate on L/S. All that pink will turn black (dead) after the spray,

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#18

You think this stuff will work?

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#19

If thats enough to cover it. It looks like a ready to use hand spray bottle. Me, I have a 20lb bag of 100% wettable sulphur powder, about 10,000 times that quantity :grinning:

#20

Yeah. I only have one semi-dwarf pear tree exhibiting symptoms. Thanks.