Well years ago.. I was so interested in what they were like.. I even asked someone to send me something with them on it.. luckly they had more sence than I and didn't.. I've since become the caretaker of some.. and they have spread themselves about some what... I received them on a nursery plant and then noticed them on a brug I'd rooted from a cutting I traded for.. two seperate introductions..
OK... they are real small... not able to be seen by the naked eye.. and I can't detect them with my 10X lens either... does anyone know what magnification you need to be able to see them.. in order to detect their effects there must be billions of them...something so small you can't see them... but they eat eneough to deform the leaves.. there has to be billions of them.. to eat that much..
A local large nursery owner..and friend... seemed to me to have some.. so I mentioned them to him.. he was a bit unmoved... but the other day I was by and he said he wassure he had them... as they were detected by a Cornell biologist he had by there.. and then he took me about to see/find them everywhere.. I posed a question to him... that an animal so small taveling from plant just the jump from one leaf to the next... over an distance.. for somethinhis.. g so small... his biological friend mentioned that the frequent carrier of them was the white flies... has anyone heard this..well anything anyone knows.' or has observed is very welcome here... thanks.. got to go.. now..Gordon
Broad Mites a shared knowledge thread...
Gordon, I think 20X will let you see them. They tend to be inside plant tissue, so you may have to try to rip down through a leaf to reveal them, without smushing them. They can travel on other small bugs, since they are so small themselves. Imagine how far they can travel with the ever-bouncing flea beetle hopping around your plants, leaving little mitey footprints all over.
They can travel on your hands and clothes, so as you go about, tending your plants and looking for broadmite, you might be the biggest vector around.
Yuck.
Gordon, According to what I have been able to find. The smallest particle a human eye can see is 40 - 50 microns. A micron is 0.001mm. A broadmite is 0.02mm or 20 microns long (different sites used different sizes). A 3X magnifying glass would just make it visible. So 20X would allow you to see it well. I read they are attracted and can travel on the legs of whiteflies.
Shushinggrasses, where did you find the info about broadmites being inside plant tissue. I was unable to find it.
http://www.optimara.com/doctoroptimara/diagnosis/broadmites.html
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/ipm/greenhs/htms/bdnginsmites.htm
http://www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/inter/inmine/Mitesb.html
Sorry, bettydee, I left out the word "crevices" after "plant tissue". So much for my proofreading. What I meant was that when you have some really distorted leaves, with all that bending and scarring and twisting, it can be hard to find a big enough surface to inspect. I found that cutting careful little slices out of the twisted up leaves lets me check things out with a 20X lens, without crushing the leafy landscape and all the critters that might be there.
If you don't yet have the nasty snarled up leaves, you can find them pretty easily, mostly on the underside of leaves, mostly on the newer growth, but they do travel all over. I can't see them clearly with a 10X, but I can with 20X. Be careful when you use a magnifying lens, a leaf surface, and all the previously unseen creatures on it, become sci-fi alarming at 20X. It is very scary.
What I can't view with my magnifying lens, I use the lowest power on my microscope. I purchased it when I was teaching biology to high school students. The one the school provided looked like those produced in the early 1900s. Later I used it with my children. I need to justify the price I paid for it so I use it every so often. LOL
Gordon, how did you treat the little "creepies"?
Bug Me ..very well .... thank you
OH.seriously..plastic explosives... well that's next... after the avid...which is on the way... up till now I've used to no great success floramite..which I knew didn't work on them with forbid..which was no real help either... oils and plenty of systemic and contact killers... nada.. so I still seem to have some..
But the beauty here ... is some of the brugs..show no damage or infestation... and they are right next to the infected plants.. but maybe they just handle it better ..
Thanks... Betty... great links... I've had difficulty in finding out what magnification is needed to see them.. and I'll give neem a try as one site mentioned..
Shushi.. so if I'm indanger of movingthem about... how long are they likely to stay on me awaiting a new plant hoast... minutes... hours...days...am I at risk of infecting the Brooklyn Botanical Garden...after a 15 minute car ride.. and a walk into their greenhouse.. might have got mine from them...
well thanks all .. most informative... I've been in such denial.. as I've known for a good while some things were infected... bt it wasalsosocontained on these few items... Katey bar the door... it's going to be a new show now... Gordon
Gordon, I understand your denial... I've felt the same way this summer. I dealt with them on a Jean Pasco a few years ago, for a whole summer... quarantined, sprayed and dosed with everything I could find or think of... I didn't touch it, stayed at least 3 ft from it with sprayers... in fall I bagged it up, potting mix and all and let the trash co have her... If I see anything that reminds me of the symtoms, it gets alienated from everything and my eagle eye... I've suspected it on an hibiscus and another brug this year.... the cupping leaves, I've read somewhere that can be from too much fertilizer, which I'm hoping is the case of both (still in denial?)... the hib is putting out normal leaves and I've noticed a new shoot of normal growth on the brug.... they've gotten the barage of neem, safer and even some bayer advanced for trees, but I'm still leary of bringing them inside for winter.... I'd rather destroy than infect all my pretties. But the hib and the brug are special... decisions...
Gordon, I do not know how long they might last on you. I think there's at least one study out on how broadmites attach to whitefly and thereby travel about, doing evil. Maybe that study addressed how long they clung onto their travel host, I don't know.
I'd use basic quarantine procedures. Any surfaces that might have the mitey ones become attached, skin, clothing, get washed or changed before moving back to working non-quarantined plants.
Denial is not an effective form of treatment, unfortunately. Which is a shame, I have a renewable supply of that. And the mites are very fast reproducers, so best of luck dealing with them, I hope you are ruthless and victorious.
That last link I provided says broadmites are toast in heat. Immersing in water held between 43ºC - 49ºC (109.4ºF - 120.2ºF) for 15 minutes kills them, but doesn't damage the plant. I'll need to remember that. Next time I encounter broadmites, I plan to wash the soil off the roots (My DH would kill me if I clogged the sewer line with potting soil.) and submerge the entire plant in the tub. Maybe if I had done that early on, I wouldn't have lost my Earth Angel.
well I'll bathe them before comming inside with them.. and they will have avid treatments for weeks before then.. some brugs are seemingly immune.. and they are right next to infected ones.. I guess that must be the study I'm conducting....they are mostly in long planters... so I'll have to dig them to remove them or hot water treat them..
You have so many beauties I can understand your concern. I have only a few in the ground and a few in pots. While looking at them recently saw this "bug patrol" on one of mine.........hope they show up in the pic.
Really, bugme? Grandaddy Long Legs eat bad brug bugs?
AuntB, not knowing what other critters might be lurking on them, those Grandaddys will get 'em for sure. Just picture a wee mite looking up and seeing one of those guys..........LOL.
Hey, I think they are creepy looking and they are much smaller than me! They've skeered me before so yes, I guess they could just scare the mites away! ty