Pear leaf blister mite

[suee]

We have a late fruiting (Canada I think) pear tree with obvious pear leaf blister mite. When we first saw the pink spots in late spring, our supplier advised using an organic treatment - we did this twice as there was no sign of flowering/fruiting. We also used bordeaux spray and the previous autumn I had applied grease bands.
The September magazine's 'pest of the month' article advises removing all infected leaves (ours look exactly like the photo) before the pests start setting up camp for the winter. This would leave the tree with no foliage at all. Any advice?
Sue.

[mellowyellow]

Hi Suee
We had same problem and in August this year (2007) decided to strip the trees (2) of all their leaves. We expected the trees to go into premature hibernation and to have to wait until Spring to see if we'd cured the infestation. Blow me if the trees didn't grow a fresh set of leaves and so far we've observed only 2 or 3 leaves that might be suspect - they were removed. So far so good ! Purpose of this message is to alert folk to the potential for a tree to recover from this 'orrible condition. Good luck !