News & Events

April 27, 2010 Miticide Trial

Control Of Two-Spotted Spider Mites On Strawberries (Albion var.) With EZ-WET SE™ Alone And Tank Mixed With Agri-Mek® Miticide. Ventura, CA. 2010 . Holden Research and Consulting For GROW MORE Inc.

Conclusions: This trial began with very heavy populations of mites and all treatments provided significant reduction of the pest adults and eggs compared to the untreated controls. EZ-WET SE™, a selective cuticle disrupting plant wash adjuvant was effective in reducing mites and enhanced the efficacy of Agri-Mek in tank mix combinations (Table 1). Agri-Mek at 8.0 floz/A + EZ-WET SE at 0.25% vol/vol provided the best miticidal activity (Figure 1). This reduced rate tank mix provides a valuable tool for integrated pest management with reduced product rates and two different modes of action for selective resistance
managment.

Procedure: The trial was laid out in a randomized complete block design of seven (7) treatments, utilizing four (4) replication plots per treatment. Plots, consisting of one bed (5.3 ft x 15 ft long) contained four lines of Albion var. strawberries. A single application (4/27/09) of each treatment was made using a Soloâ backpack airblast sprayer that delivered 100 gallons of water per acre equivalent. Evaluations for both motile mites and eggs were made on a regular basis (7 sample dates) with 10 newly expanded leaves per plot sampled. All data rated as significant was analyzed using a two way ANOVA (p = 0.05). Average % Reduction Data is presented in Table 1 and Figure 1.

Table 1. Control Of Two-Spotted Mites In Albion var. Strawberries, Ventura, CA. 2010

Trt No.	Product Tested	Rate: vol/vol	% Reduction Mites, 9 DAT*	% Reduction Eggs, 9 DAT*
1	EZ-WET SE™**	0.25%	66.7a	66.2 a
2	EZ-WET SE™	1.00%	86.7a	68.1 a
3	EZ-WET SE™	2.00%	88.7a	72.4 a
4	Agri-Mek® + EZ-WET SE™	8.0 floz/A + 0.25%	90.0a	90.5 a
5	Agri-Mek®	8.0 floz.	70.0a	71.4 a
6	Agri-Mek®	16.0 floz.	86.7a	71.4 a
7	Untreated Control	--------	0.00 b	0.00 b

* % Reduction data at 9 days after treatment; means flanked by same letter are not significantly different, (p=0.05)
** EZ-WET SE™ from GROW MORE Inc.; Agri-Mek from Bayer Inc.