Good Management of Twospotted Spider Mites Starts With the Basics

Posted by Brian Sparks|April 20, 2021

One of the biggest challenges for growers with twospotted spider mites is that it is easy to miss this pest when scouting. Once growers do spot the pest and identify it correctly, the situation is often curative, meaning populations have built up and different lifeforms of the mite are present on the crop.

Rick Fletcher, Technical Manager of Turf and Ornamental for Nufarm, has some tips to share about the best ways to prevent twospotted spider mites and control them when they start to wreak havoc on plants.

Fletcher recommends three best practices for managing twospotted spider mites:

Scouting comes first. Someone needs to routinely check crops for signs of twospotted spider mites. Indicator plants can help with scouting because mites normally gravitate to them first, but indicator plants are not a replacement for thorough scouting.
Proper identification is critical. Chemical controls may not work if you are not dealing with the correct mite. Growers also need to remember that different lifeforms of the pest can be present on a crop at the same time.
Pay attention to modes of action to avoid exposing twospotted spider mites to the same mode of action more than twice during their life cycles. Good resistance management and rotation should always be priorities.

Learn more in the video below.