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alameda_gw

Question About New Kind of Rose Mite

I was at a well known daylily farm yesterday - the owner is a good friend of mine and he keeps current on all kinds of plants. He mentioned a new kind of rose mite [not a spider mite] that is on the east coast and is killing alot of the Knockout roses and other kinds as well, other than the old garden roses. He didnt know the name of it, only that there is no cure for it at the moment. It sounds very bad....I have heard nothing about it and was wondering if anyone has heard anything about this. We had been discussing rust in daylilies - this never heard of in years past - dayliliy folliage was always healthy - now we are fighting rust in these plants and it is everywhere. With the mild winter, he said the northern growers are going to be seeing more of it and research is being done to erradicate it. There is a product but its very expensive and unless shared, is prohibitive for the hobby grower. I am hoping there is not a pest on the horizon that is going to be this destructive for rose growers.

Comments (4)

  • michaelg
    11 years ago

    If I understand correctly--The mite is not new and not the problem,it is just the carrier--the problem is the virus that causes Rose Rosette Disease or RRD.

  • roseseek
    11 years ago

    RRD is naturally occurring in many areas. There are pockets of it in the Northern California mountains where it is contained geographically as the surrounding elevation prevents the mites from migrating. Scary that this is what the government has sought to release in the mid west to control multiflora...Kim

  • anntn6b
    11 years ago

    Michael's right.
    The mite is (Genus species) Phyllocoptes fructiphillus, it is an Eriophyid mite, which has a very different body from the mites you have when you have spider mites. Eriophyids have been studied and named since the 1900s. Better microscopes lead to better descriptions. There are tens of thousands of different kinds.
    They are much smaller than most garden pests you are used to and you'd need a 20x hand lens to see one. They have four legs at one end, no respiratory system,two feather claws whose function is unknown, and no ability to fly. They ride puffs of wind and go where the wind takes them.

    They are major pests of many important food crops: peaches, corn, wheat, pigeon peas, dates are a few. But their real danger is the viruses that they transmit. As individual pests they don't do much damage, but the ones that transmit Emaraviruses within crops are serious problems.

    Different eriophyid mites have very different survivorships to different miticides (properly called acaricides).

    The peach mite is the only one for which disease translocation has been studied. When it was moved from an infected peach tree to a 'clean' peach tree, that particular disease was transmitted in 15 minutes.

    A note about the Day Lily rust: those fans are lucky as there are Day Lilies that appear to be immune to the rust. Contrary to what your friend thinks he knows, OGRS are also susceptible to RRD.

  • alameda/zone 8/East Texas
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I am a little bit familiar with RRD.....I am assuming this is what he was talking about. Glad to know there is not something new on the horizon to worry about! Thanks for the info!
    Judith