Washington State University entomologist Dr. Stan Hoyt developed integrated mite control in the late 1960s (see “How integrated mite control works”). Over the last four decades, integrated mite control has saved Washington fruit growers millions of dollars each year because they did not have to use specific miticides to control spider mites. National surveys of pesticide use in apples show that, over the last 20 years, an average of 24 percent of the Washington acres were treated annually with miticides. By comparison, 76 percent of Michigan and 70 percent of New York apple acres, on average, were treated annually with […]