Pest Profile

Brown wheat mite
Petrobia latens
  • Brown wheat mite
  • Brown wheat mite damage

Pest Description

Brown wheat mites are metallic brown to black, which are just small enough to be visible. Their legs are orange, and their forelegs are distinctively longer than the other three pair of legs.

Brown wheat mite feeds on wheat in late fall and early spring, with a tendancy to feed on leaf tips, causing them to stipple, brown and die. Heavily infested fields present a scorched, withered appearance.

Source of information

P.E. Sloderbeck, J.P. Michaud, and R. J. Whitworth (entomology.ksu.edu)

Pest photo source

Phil Sloderbeck, KSU Entomology