Those jumping spiders are amazing! I had the same experience. Nothing ever cleaned up my plants as fast or as well as one of those guys. I used to think they were gross, but after I discovered their prodigious mite-eating abilities I actually began to think of them as cute! (they actually are cuter than regular spiders). Problem is, it's hard to find them when you need them. If I'm lucky enough to find one when I have an indoor pest problem, I always bring them in. I haven't had the same success with them on my outdoor plants - short attention span maybe? They tend to wander off before all the offending bugs are gone. In any case, they are definitely one of my favorite bugs and I've found them to be more effective (and less annoying to have around) than any other bug predator (including lady bugs).

They look like chiggers. I get them every year. They cover my plants for a few weeks - persistent little boogers - but they never really do any harm. You can take the water hose to them if you need to put your hands in those areas. I don't know if it's the weather or something that eats them, but they always go away and never really do any damage. I can't tell from the picture, but are they webbing at all? If so then definitely not chiggers and I'd go with the baby spider idea. And Ken, I'm with you on leaving them alone in the garden. I HATE spiders. Lol So in the house, it's fair game. But in the garden, I hate damaging insects more so spiders become the good guys. They can hang around and eat all the aphids and mites to their little hearts content. I still don't have to like them, I just have to leave them alone. Haha. Nature has a way of balancing itself without our help. I've learned the hard way to leave well enough alone!

Thank you! Yay-- not that I'm happy about aphids, but I'll take them over spider mites!

@Polypom @Rina Thanks for giving me a hint for the species, as well as sharing the pics of your plants! You're right, mine have no spines nor prickly parts whatsoever, and they aren't near as thick or rigid as yours look. I had never seen this type of plant, and only bought it because I thought it was neat. Maybe I bought the genetically inferior result of some mad botanist's cross-breeding experiments? :-x As for sunlight and etiolation, I honestly don't think that's it because I've been growing my A. Subulata in the same conditions as my other succulents, same July - October sunlight on my back porch. In fact, they were all sitting in a row on the same porch railing throughout most of this. I typically use the "finger dipstick" test to determine when I should water, but I've kept these plants dry for the most part. Maybe they get watered once every 6 - 10 days at most? The plants pictured below in the black plastic containers are the ones I bought at the same time from the flea market lady (this was dated 7/18/2015), with the baby A. Subulata in the middle. It's a blurry camera pic, but I'm pretty sure I had 5 - 6 of the plants in that pot when I started. ...and these are those same plants now, with the little black container for reference. I'm pretty sure I used the same Miracle Gro "Cactus, Palm, & Citrus potting mix", for these, but it's possible I cut it with Fox Farms Ocean Forest potting soil (I probably did for the big cactus just due to the size of the pot). I know that's not ideal for a desert plant, but surely poor drainage / incorrect perlite mixture would have made my babies pictured above look like this sickly baby pictured below! Maybe A. Subulata is more finicky or sensitive to something in this N.C. weather? I repotted all of those flea market plants the day after I bought them...I didn't know that A. Subulata was many plants, so I was surprised when they all came apart in my hand when I pulled them out. One of the A.Subs died within a couple of weeks of me re-potting, but I chalked that up to my novice plant-handling skills. The others held on, but then started doing the "loch ness monster" dip/grow back up/dip more/grow up/die cycle since maybe late August or so?. That's why I suspected disease or pests, just because it took so long for them to start declining...but maybe they hated that soil, and it's just taken them this long to say "I give up" and die? @Asclepiad_Fan I didn't see what my mom did with it on a day-to-day basis when she owned it, but it always stayed in a pot either on the back porch (wooden, 2nd story off of the ground) or inside in a window sill in the winter. Honestly, it's always had some form of scarring and it's only gotten worst as time went on (summer or indoors!). Anyways, here's some pics in bright sunlight (maybe it will show something that my previous rainy-day pics don't?) This is the front, where there is less scarring visible: This is the back, which looks worse: And here is a close-up of the off-shoot: even its base is showing that same scarring! Not sure if it matters, but this guy has always had more spider webs on it since I assumed ownership and re-potted it. Some mornings, I would see one - two threads on the other succulents, but this guy has always consistently more inside of his pot compared to the other porch-rail succulents. Is it because it's a bigger pot / firm spines make better anchor points and the spiders look for that? Or, maybe I do have some spider-mite like pest? It sure looks like something has been sucking this poor dude dry his whole life...