Strawberries and Caneberries

Thanks to some sharp eyed grower colleagues - and well equipped with some impressive hand lens and field microscopes I might add - I got my hands on some good Lewis mites and was able get some pictures. Truly, these do look different than twospotted spider mite.

Introduction: Grafting is increasingly common in vegetable crops such as cucumbers, tomatoes and watermelons as this technique has continued the possibility of production of these commodities in disease infested soils which can no longer be fumigated or chemically treated.

UCCE Farm Advisor Mark Bolda will be providing a training on light brown apple moth (LBAM) that qualifies attendees to be an approved scout relating to the Compliance Agreement for shipment of berries to Canada.

I am currently doing a spray trial in a field ostensibly populated with both Lewis mite, Eotetranychus lewisii and twospotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae. To boot, there's Phytoseiulus persimilis predatory mite mixed in, which people say doesn't eat much of Lewis mite.

With some of the time that the occasional rainy days have been affording me, I've been catching up with my professional reading. In particular, an article the November 2017 edition of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau newsletter - like I said I was catching up - caught my eye.