Effects of Increasing the Nitrogen Level of Apple Leaves on Mite and Predator Populations

Abstract

Prior to 1950 the European red mite, Panonychus ulmi Koch, was a major pest in Nova Scotia apple orchards, and brown mite, Bryobia arborea M. and A., was practically non-existent. Lord (1949), showed that the sulphur fungicides, commonly in use up to that time, were detrimental to some of the predacious species and toxic to the brown mite. After 1950 red mite populations became negligible and, although the brown mites increased, they did not become sufficiently abundant to cause economic damage. This shift of population balance in Nova kotia orchards has been attributed to the gradual replacement of sulphur and other detrimental materials by pesticides less harmful to predators of the mites (Pickett 1953).