Use mag. glass and look for reddish very small bugs that move when you disturb them with your finger nai.. You will also see a lot of fine white stippling in the leaves if you have a bad infestation. I wouldn't bother looking for webbing.

Thanks. I've had spider mites once earlier this year when my trees were still indoor, so I know what the bugs look like, sort of, although the ones I had were not red. Webbing is really what I was looking at today, I found a few webs on my trees this morning, and I was wondering if they were from regular spiders or spider mites.

Alright, I guess I need to get myself a magnifying glass this week then :)

Thank you guys!

I guess I either have better eye sight than ya'll or our oklahoma spider mites are enormous. No need for magnification.

"Dave in NoVA • 7a • Northern VA

3 hours ago

Get out your magnifying glass!"

Hey Mike, Howe are ya? Quite frankly I didn't need the magnifying glass last time either, but Dave got all bossy on me and he scared me, lol :)

Atheen

I'm starting to think that much of the garden world has poor eyesight, that or Ontario spider mites are huge. I've read on many different forums how a magnifying glass is needed to see spider mites.

In have no problems seeing them at all on my plants. Maybe these are just big because ive got a full on infestation at this point.

There's a bug called a red velvet mite that's a bit bigger..and apparently harmless, part of the soil breakdown group...that *may* be what you're seeing.

All I'm saying is, if you have webbing from spider mites, you will SEE spider mites on the plants. Yes, not always reddish, sometimes brown or black.

Since you've had them before you should know what they look like. But a magnifying glass will certainly help distinguish them from regular spiders (which tend to be solitary).

Generally mite webbing is very fine and usually concentrated around the soft growing tips and newest growth of the plants, depending on the plant. Sometimes webbing can be found on the undersides of leaves near the midrib (again depending on the plant).

But again, mite infestation is usually apparent first from a fine white stippling on the leaves.

Thank you Dave. I didn't mean anything by it, btw, just pulling your leg :) What you just said actually really helps. I just don't want to freak out each time I see a spider web on my trees, ya know? Specially since I don't want to chase the good ones away :)

I just had a major S.M. infestation on one plant. The leaves turned stipply white almost overnight! They can really explode during warm dry weather.

Oh, crapola that really sucks. What do you do in a case like that? vigorous hosing down and neem oil?

Yes, spraying with water, and then I'm trying an insecticidal soap as well.

We'll see.

I've always wondered about that actually. Some people swear by neem oil, others prefer the insecticidal soaps. I tend to err on the soap side if I had to chose, but that's mainly because I'm not thrilled at the idea of oil stains on my Azek deck. What's your take on soap vs neem oil?

Bmelz,

Dbarron is right, those bigger red dots on the edge of your pot are Red Velvet Mites. You can also identify them because they run around really fast and you'll find them on other places than the plant foliage, like the pot, the ground, etc. The don't hurt plants. You may also have spider mites, but they will be on the leaves, not the pot itself, in general.

Spider mites on the other hand, while can sometimes be seen with the naked eye, will look more like slowly moving dust specks, and are various colors depending on what kind of spider mites. They also will almost never be seen anywhere else but on the plant it self. I think they tend to spread from plant to plant by floating on the breeze helped by a web strand used as a parachute. The don't walk around much off a plant.

The magnifying glass is to confirm that they actually are spider mites and not something else.

I got stung by a spider mite and it packed a wallop. I got a picture of it as it crawled away

Holy crap on a cracker, Steve, that is NOT what I thought they looked like up close! How big is that thing?

Steve, I think that's what they call a Velvet Ant, it's a wingless wasp. Spider Mites don't have stingers, and even if they did they're way too small to penetrate human skin. They have mouth parts similar to regular spiders but use them to rasp the surface of the plant and then they suck up the juices. The tiny stipple spots are where they've scratched and sucked up the plant juice.

A close up of the Two Spotted Spider Mite. This is a common one, but they're many kinds.

And how they look to the naked eye, up close. You can see the fine webbing with mites crawling on it. They're the tiny dots. It does look fairly different than regular spider webs.

And here you can see the stipple spotted damage on a leaf;

This is a pretty bad case on a lemon tree. The webbing, the tiny mites and the stippling can all be seen here.

If you click on the pics, most will show it as a larger picture.

Barb, that is absolutely perfect, thank you so much! those pictures are amazing :)

While we are on the subject of mites, can you guys tell me if you prefer soap or neem oil to treat them and why? I'm trying to be proactive in what I have in my citrus arsenal :)

Thank you :)

Atheen

------------------- "I'm trying to be proactive in what I have in my citrus arsenal"-------------------

That is the most important action in any gardening. By the time you see the problem, Go out and buy the products and get home, on you off time, it is to late.

Steve

Neem and soap are close to useless for me indoor where it only takes one to reinfest. So I use chemicals. I like forbid.