Citrus Bud Mites Deform Lemons

This is the photo that was submitted to go with my SF Chronicle (sfgate.com) Golden Gate Gardener column today. How could they resist printing this wonderfully sculpted Eureka lemon? But resist they did, so I thought you'd like to see it here. The image was taken by Dagmar Zidek, whose lemon tree has the problem. 

This happens because some mites enter the flower buds and start sucking out the sap. The ovary of the flower is misshapen, so the fruit is, well, outlandish. Citrus bud mite is apparently particularly a problem near the coast in our area, just where we depend on lemons for most of our garden citrus. 

The goal, in managing the pest, is to kill it without killing too many of its predators, in particular predatory mites. You have to spray when the bud mites are active and not yet inside the buds, which is May and June, then again in September through November. Use a summer oil spray. Some summer oil formulations are still based on petroleum, but apparently studies showed that vegetable oils worked fine too, so now a lot of the newer ones are based on vegetable oils, like canola or soy. So keep your lemons looking like lemons by keeping this pest under control!

Or maybe you'd rather go for the Deformed Lemon Hall of Fame.  

Comments

[Pam Peirce]

Hi Rebekah, I don't think there is any reason not to use the juice of the lemon that mites have infested. They attack the flower, causing the ovary to develop poorly. There probably aren't very many actual mites in the mature lemon, since they don't lile the big, tough lemon as well as the tender flower. If there were any, they'd be in crevices in the peel, not the juice, so you might not want to use the peel in cooking. In any case, I don't think the mites would be harmful to eat. There is only the "yuck" factor to consider.

[Rebekah]

Hi all-

My lemons started looking a lot like this picture..........some are normal and some look so weird! this is the first year it has happened.....

That being said, are they still OK to use when they ripen, or should I just cut them off and focus on the 'normal' looking fruit? Does anyone know that answer? I would greatly appreciate some info......

[Evan]

Hi

wow indeed! Can't believe that Citrus bud mite can create such problems in flower buds.
I too believe that SF Chronicle should have published this one. It would be helpful in controlling this pest problem.

Thanks for sharing.

[Kathryn Fairchild]

In the print copy of this article you refer to another column written 2/15 about the rat gnawing problem. Can you direct me to that post because I missed it in the paper and can't find it on my own on your blog? I believe that must be what is causing our lemon trees to look "pruned", and I'd like to know what you wrote about it. We live on a canyon in Belmont. Thank you.