Americans call them 2-spot mites. Look for the two spots; you'll need a magnifying glass. But it's a bit early yet.
The RHS Senior Entomologist who visited me several years ago said (August±) that my mites on a beech hedge were not greenhouse spider mites because they were red. ?? He said the reason the greenhouse ones are called red, is because the larvae are red. OK!
What damage are yours doing? Do they run around fast?
If mites, they don't like it wet. So blasting with water should work. And fatty acid spray should kill anything entomological.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
@Winston_The_Gravity_Man thank you for your post about my daughter, she was shocked, angry, scared, and had to sit and wait for her husband to come and get her.
She’s ok though, she got her old bike out, some old lights and off she went on a lonely ride along the river tracks. I get scared for her. There was a film, back in the 60’s called The Loneliness of the long distance runner, she’s like that but on her bike.
Those little red spiders are just are spiders, not spider mites. They cover walls and patio in the summer here.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Well you live and learn, @Lyn I always heard people calling them red spider mites and so that's where I picked-up the name from. Not just plants and weeds I need to read-up on but munchy, pesty, insecty things too. I've realised that the older I get the less I know .... so little time, so much to do !
When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
I'm in the UK, the area of garden is in a corner against a fence in a raised bed.
On the leaves the creature lets call them barely move, sometimes you will see them moving round, you can't see them unless quite close up and looking for them.
I shook some onto a piece of paper and took some close up next to a £1 coin for size reference. They're no more than 1mm and everywhere I look online says 1mm or less for spider mites (note a lot of the specs are just tiny pieces of soil, if you zoom in you can just about make out the legs). The picture doesn't show the colour well, they're redish brown body with redish legs.
Damage wise, they killed off all carrot seedlings (I first noticed them on the first leaves of the carrot seedlings and there was say 10 on each seedling within a few days the leaves turned yellow). Since I've spotted them on other plants and been blasting them off they're fairly low in numbers and so can't do much damage to bigger plants
Posts
The RHS Senior Entomologist who visited me several years ago said (August±) that my mites on a beech hedge were not greenhouse spider mites because they were red. ?? He said the reason the greenhouse ones are called red, is because the larvae are red. OK!
What damage are yours doing? Do they run around fast?
If mites, they don't like it wet. So blasting with water should work. And fatty acid spray should kill anything entomological.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Those little red spiders are just are spiders, not spider mites. They cover walls and patio in the summer here.
On the leaves the creature lets call them barely move, sometimes you will see them moving round, you can't see them unless quite close up and looking for them.
I shook some onto a piece of paper and took some close up next to a £1 coin for size reference. They're no more than 1mm and everywhere I look online says 1mm or less for spider mites (note a lot of the specs are just tiny pieces of soil, if you zoom in you can just about make out the legs). The picture doesn't show the colour well, they're redish brown body with redish legs.
Damage wise, they killed off all carrot seedlings (I first noticed them on the first leaves of the carrot seedlings and there was say 10 on each seedling within a few days the leaves turned yellow). Since I've spotted them on other plants and been blasting them off they're fairly low in numbers and so can't do much damage to bigger plants