Broad mites are back (and have been for a while) and they have become common in the fall. Some fields have been treated twice and still have mites. Some have been cleaned up successfully.
First – a couple of reminders:
Do not put a sticker with Agri-Mek (also no chlorthalonil because it has a sticker in it). Do add a penetrating surfactant to get the full effect of the translaminar movement of Agri-mek.
Most other acaricides are contact products and a surfactant can help with coverage. Some encourage use of adjuvants on the label.
Second – Ty Torrance set up an efficacy test in a growers field this week. We currently only have counts for 3 days after treatment, but wanted to let everyone know how this is looking. While we did not look at everything registered for Broad mite (did not include Oberon, which we know is good but very slow), we included the primary products and a relatively new acaricide, Magister.
While 3 days is not adequate time for many of our acaricides, we did see significant reductions with all of the products. Both Torac and Magister gave similar very good early control.
I do caution that this is our first test with Magister and we have only one date of data to this point. We will follow up with counts next week and share that data as it develops.