Bindweed Mite Boon to Agricultural Crop Producers

Suggested Anchor Introduction

A mighty mite may just be the answer to eliminate devastating field bindweed, which spreads through crops and gardens across the state. New Mexico State University's Anna María Pèrez-Wright has more.

Story

Click to Listen:

Field bindweed chokes out crops in every one of New Mexico's 33 counties. The weed is difficult to control because it's resistant to pesticides, and has no native predators in the United States. But this plant Goliath may have met its David in the form of a tiny mite that preys on the weed's leaves and roots. Forage agronomist Leonard Lauriault with New Mexico State University's Agricultural Science Center at Tucumcari says the mites attack the bindweed on every front.

"The mite weakens the plant by weakening the root system. It also weakens the plant when it's feeding on the top growth in that the vines are inhibited from producing flowers and seed."

Lauriault says that once the mite is established, researchers can spread it quickly to nearby vines.

"The mites are transferred from infested plants to non-infested plants by breaking off plant parts, vines mainly, and transferring those to non-infested plants by twisting them around. And once the plants within an area are infested we can move the mite around in that area by mowing just about every two weeks. It's very easy to spread by mowing."

The mites allow crop producers and home gardeners to eliminate the weed without using pesticides. Because the mite feeds exclusively on bindweed, Lauriault says it offers farmers a control method that will not harm crops or native plants.

"If you used strictly a chemical control program, seed can be stored in the soil for up to fifty years, so you're spraying chemicals trying to get ahead of the bindweed."

For more information on bindweed, or free bindweed mites to control the plants on your property, call NMSU's Agricultural Science Center at Tucumcari, (505) 461-1620. For N-M-S-U's College of Agriculture and Home Economics, I'm Anna María Pèrez-Wright.