Tea Mites of the World Diversity, Bioecology, Management

About this book

Language: English

Tea is an industry-oriented and commercially important plantation crop growing in over 60 countries of the world that is transacting over US$ 7 billion per year. Out of this amount, the major share belongs to countries like China, India, Sri Lanka and Kenya. It is a common beverage enjoyed by members of all ages and all societies. By one estimate, about 40 billion cups of tea are drunk every day throughout the world.

Tea is attacked by many pests, causing substantial economic loss to the planters. Among the tea pests, mites are considered to be the second most injurious pests, especially the red spider mite which causes 11-55% crop loss. the value of which turns out to be US$ 500 million - US$ 1 billion per year. Although some books are available on insect pests of tea, no book consolidates information on various aspects of tea mites under one cover. Keeping that in view, an attempt has been made by the authors to collect information on basic and applied aspects of tea mites and include those in this book. This is the first book of its kind in the world. Besides the diversity of tea mites and their natural enemies from the world, several other aspects such as biology, seasonal occurrence, management with conventional and traditional methods, organic tea cultivation and integrated pest management, etc. have been dealt with in this book. The wealth of information given in the book will be of immense help to tea planters, researchers, policymakers in the tea industry. This will also help in identifying gaps and provide new insight into the management of tea pests in general, with a focus on integrated pest management in particular.

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