The problem with the RRD vector mite is that it has an extremely short accession time. A vector mite can bite into/feed on a rose for fifteen minutes and that is long enough to spread RRv.
This time was first seen in a similar virus transmitted by a related mite in Peach trees in California and Mexico.
Dr. Jim Amrine recently said that that time also applies to RRv.

For such very small mites, they walk fast on their six legs. If they feed where the rose has undifferentiated meristems (leaf buds, other axils), they can spread it that fast.

Even if the virus is spread fast and the numbers of mites are high, why wouldn't it be better to cut down on the numbers of mites?

I wonder about whether spider mite treatments would work with RRD mites. Namely blasting them with water. Spider mites live on the underside of leaves so you have to blast the underside of leaves. But doesn't the RRD mite live in the leaf axils? I wonder whether you could blast some off with your hose pretty easily. It might make a difference.

Some of the miticides out there kill the eggs as well as the adults. I think some of them are systemic. Why wouldn't they work on RRD mites? I know some think Avid kills them but Avid doesn't kill the eggs. I wish some researchers would take a look at whether non-toxic stuff that tastes bad would make a plant unappealing to the mites. Something like cayenne pepper or something bitter. Maybe mixed with a spreader/ sticker. I spray fungicides and think it is possible that the mites don't like it. Have not had rampant RRD here but have lost a small number of plants in the past 15 years.

My understanding is that miticides are very expensive. I understand the fear of losing roses to RRD (I've lost a few) but I think this would be overkill and not that effective. I also don't think mites have taste buds like deer.

I don't know if mites have taste buds but something must enable them to differentiate between roses and non-roses.

But if you killed off spider mites AND RRD mites you wouldn't have to worry too much about losing your spider mites. Not that I necessarily would want to spray miticides..I don't like it. Miticides that kill eggs do cost a lot.. around $200 or more I think, but if you are in a rose club you might be able to share the bottle and expense. I'd prefer plain water, if it worked.

This is an excellent thread, IMO. This is a rose forum at it's best. As of now, there may seem to be no solution to the problem, but I think that the more people think about stuff and exchange knowledge and ideas,the closer we will get to a solution.

I'm glad so many have shared their opinions. I guess my thought was that a dead mite was better than a live one. Around us are tons of the wild roses growing the tree lines. If my property bordered a tree line i would be tempted to spray the wild roses with a miticide. Reducing the population seems like it should help somehow?!?!

grace e

Grace,

Maybe think about it this way "If my property ordered a tree line, I would tempt the wild roses with herbicide.
Reducing the host plants of the vector mites would help.

Back when the Lincoln Memorial University Rose Garden sickened with RRD, the field upwind from that rose garden had thousands of plants of Rosa multiflora. We estimated, based on some transits DH did that one third of those roses had Rose Rosette.
The university was leasing the land out to someone who was supposed to be farming it, but instead that farmer was doing nothing with it, not even grazing it. I tried to get them to bush hog it, but no. They just left it. And the garden got more and more RRD.

You want to get to the newly arrived vector mites before they get established. Spraying every week just doesn't do that unless you have a systemic acaricide (fancy but accurate word for miticide), and that acaricide readily moves into newest growth.

Or you allow predators in, and from what Amrine and his students have seen, that includes spider mites and predaceous thrips.

See:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3253938/something-to-try-for-rose-rosette-virus?n=7

If I was a RRD researcher I might send some questionaires to rose gardeners to see if any patterns emerge in the prevalence of RRD in certain areas, or with certain garden practices. Maybe they do that all ready. Ordinary gardeners and farmers are probably the source of much good horticulture information. It's hard to study mites without knowing how to study them but if you had a microscope you could look at a stem before and after using some mite treatment . As far as I know spider mites don't get back on the plant after being sprayed off. I am not certain why, but think they are damaged by the water blast. I don't know why that wouldn't be true of RRD mites. Letting predators eat RRD mites would be less work for the gardener, but who wants a spider mite or thrip infestation?

I think the word needs to get out to every town that has a landscape department that plants Knockouts but doesn't know anything about RRD. I see far more sick Knockouts than wild multiflora.

Erasmus,

What I accumulated and put in the Ebook has been read by the funded researchers, most of whom have talked to me and asked questions.
What research is trying to do now is prove and / or disprove some of the avoidance techniques (air flow, predaceous insects, etc.) Research dollars are also going to genetic modifications to make roses that aren't susceptible to RRD. That isn't going to help antique roses at all, but should, when and if they succeed, reduce the disease pressures on other roses.

Early on, the standard statement was that RRD didn't affect cultivated roses. I WAS the voice in the wilderness begging to differ and I did it with pictures and info that came from Garden web rose growers as well as other rose growers.

There are roses that 'should' have gotten RRD in infected gardens , but they didn't. Problem is that those cultivars did get RRD in other places. It's impossible to work backwards in a garden setting.....temp, rainfall, beneficial insects, wind patterns....can't be reconstructed on a microclimate.

The bigger tests in state gardens can at least record what happened when.

To be a total downer....Black Current Reversion (viruses) has been a problem in Europe for about a century. Lots of black current lovers were scientists and it took a very long time and the development of new things to even prove that BCR was a virus...actually in some situations multiple viruses with some other things probably thrown in to muddy the 'water'.

Although it may be accurate that: "Research dollars are also going to genetic modifications to make roses that aren't susceptible to RRD. That isn't going to help antique roses at all, but should, when and if they succeed, reduce the disease pressures on other roses."

(H.Kuska I added the bold to part of the quote), it may be possible to develop a virus resistant rootstock that will help protect old roses from the fatality of RRV.

See:

https://pag.confex.com/pag/xxiv/webprogram/Paper18874.html

Oh, Henry,

I wish they could guarantee that.

Another gmo virus resistant rootstock research paper (RNA interference (RNAi)). This time for tomatoes.

http://www.chinaagrisci.com/Jwk_zgnykxen/EN/article/downloadArticleFile.do?attachType=PDF&id=10623

A similar paper:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pedro_Martinez-Gomez/publication/282999664_Interspecific_transfer_of_resistance_to_Plum_Pox_Virus_in_Prunus_by_grafting/links/5717372c08aec49c999cc9f2.pdf

There are (a few) times when I feel guilt in hoping that RRD is solved in my lifetime and that's when I read about other Emaraviruses that cause hunger in populations.
Pigeonpea sterility reduces the yield of pigeonpeas significantly, and many people eat them as an important source of nutrition. Likewise another emaravirus is established in date orchards and reduces (IIRC) production by 90%. Not to mention wheat and corn.

If the problems there were solved, then maybe roses could be a priority.

There is one fruit tree that has a virus-resistant genetically modified version, but because it's GMO, there has been no interest.

Discussions are also happening over at the rose forum

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/4051054/frigging-rrd?n=17