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Scouting Citrus for Pests - Page 12
Spider Mites:
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Dry weather
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Upper leaf surfaces
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Stippling\
Spider mites are always present, although they are most likely to reach damaging population densities during dry weather. Spider mites prefer to feed on upper leaf surfaces of recently hardened leaves. They are considerably larger than rust mites and feed deeper in the leaf tissue. Groups of leaf cells thus emptied of contents leave white spots known as stippling. Heavy stippling my lead to leaf desiccation known as “firing”, especially when trees are stressed by drought, dry winds or other factors. The two most common spider mite pests in Florida are the citrus red mite, Panonychus citri and the Texas citrus mite, Eutetranychus banksi. All stages of the former are red including the eggs which are round and secured by silk guy wires
to a silk mast. The Texas mite is greenish and the eggs are button-shaped. Both mites have 1 six-legged and 2 8-legged nymphal stages before becoming adults. Males are more elongate with longer legs than females, especially Texas citrus mite.
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