Insights · Redlegged earth mite
Redlegged earth mite timing for spring
For winter-rainfall districts, AgronomyNote names the spring fortnight to control redlegged earth mite before they switch to laying summer eggs. Check mite numbers first: it is timing, not advice to spray.
How the fortnight is worked out
When redlegged earth mite switch to summer eggs follows day length and the district’s long-term climate. Neither changes from one week to the next, so AgronomyNote works the dates out once a year onto a grid across the cropping country, and the card does not wait on a weather forecast to show them.
Why a fortnight, not a date
The model is not precise to the day, so it does not pretend to be. It names fourteen days and ends them a week before its own deadline, because late is the expensive direction: once the summer eggs are laid, no spray reaches them.
There is no best spray date and no opening date. The fortnight sits inside a longer good period, and naming a single day would claim a precision the model does not have.
Where it shows, and where it does not
Winter-rainfall cropping districts get a fortnight. Summer-rainfall districts get no window at all rather than a neighbour’s borrowed guess: the climate measure behind the model misreads wherever summer rain is high, and a wrong answer that looks like knowledge is worse than none.
Questions agronomists ask
Is the redlegged earth mite window a spray recommendation?
No. AgronomyNote shows timing only. Check mite numbers before deciding anything; the decision, and the product, are yours.
Does the mite window change with the weather forecast?
No. It works from day length and the district’s long-term climate, so the fortnight does not move with this week’s forecast.
Does AgronomyNote show an autumn window?
No. The card covers the spring window, before the mites switch to summer eggs.
Have the spring mite window on hand in the paddock
Start free for 30 daysNo card needed. See pricing