Brown citrus rust mite

Pests causes a typical blemish on the skin of the fruit. Brown citrus rust mite attacks the outer exposed surface of the fruit, preferring the ins n the tree. Blemished fruit lose water faster than undamaged fruit and appear smaller and substandard, deteriorating rapidly. Fruit blemish results from infestation by huge numbers of mites on green, immature fruit in summer-autumn. On heavily infested young fruit the mites and their cast skins can be seen as a dust-like layer on the fruit surface. Rust mites can also cause bronzing of leaves and green twigs, with general loss of tree vigour, sometimes resulting in severe damage to young trees. Brown citrus rust mite adults are about 0.18 mm long, light to dark brown, broad and strongly wedge-shaped, and have 2 pairs of legs. The females lay disc-shaped, transparent eggs singly in depressions on fruit and leaf surfaces near where the mites are feeding. Immature mites are lighter in colour than the adults, and slimmer.