Onion growers are painfully aware that it does not take much to ruin a valuable acre of onions. Orange County, N.Y., onion growers have noticed R. robini is becoming more of a pest each year. Combined, there are about 12,000 acres of onions being grown in New York. Wind barriers, such as snow fences, or planting basket willows or growing shaded plants, or even growing other crops such as barley or oats, serve to keep the soil in its place. So it is the researcher's job to understand what sort of niche a new pest is occupying and how this pest is affecting the crop.
Farmers always go through change.
As soon as you change something, a living system will take advantage of that change. Other Cornell scientists are joining in the research. Richard W. Straub, Cornell professor of entomology and located at the Hudson Valley Lab, performs mite research in nearby Orange County. Michael G. Villani, Cornell associate professor of entomology at Geneva, also is studying the mite at the experiment station. Ariel Diaz, Cornell graduate student in entomology from Ponce, Puerto Rico, has initiated a research program dealing with the behavior of the mite.