There are host plants other than wheat and they grow in Kentucky, but wheat is by far most important. There is no known effective pesticidal control for this mite. We very probably have the mite, the virus and alternate hosts for the mite and virus present in Kentucky every year, but we rarely have an epidemic. We were able to view the severity and distribution of affected fields, and more importantly, gather background information from people involved in local crop production. While we were not able to solve the problem, we do think we can now explain what has probably occurred.
Wheat is the ideal host for both the virus and the wheat curl mite.
The mite can live on some other grasses, but does not do well. Since we do not ordinarily have a wheat streak mosaic problem, our wild hosts are obviously not sufficient to provide an epidemic. In looking at the literature and talking with people from Kansas, they always see the disease when wheat from a previous cropping season is allowed to live continually through to the next wheat season. This can happen in several ways. Wheat from shattered heads at harvest will germinate in the field and then may grow continuously to the next planting.