It’s time for apple growers to begin looking for European red mites. ERM can be a serious problem, reducing the yield and quality of this year’s crop as well as reducing fruit buds for next year. Most growers know the area of their orchard where they first see ERM problems. Generally, populations will start to build in the same areas each year, so that’s where you should begin your scouting efforts. If you find them, you can expand your scouting to the remainder of the orchard. Remember that the threshold for spraying increases as the season progresses. For more information, see https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/E-258/E-258.html.