Spider Mites

Spider Mites

What are Spider Mites?!

The name sounds rather confusing as both spiders and mites are two different kinds of arachnids… so then what is a spider mite? These tiny pests are part of the family Tetranychidae within the order Arachnida and are exceedingly small. To the naked eye, they appear as moving dots but, close-up, they have little oval-shaped bodies, eight legs, and two tiny, red-colored eyes. There are actually a variety of different kinds of spider mites including strawberry spider mites, twospotted spider mites, and Pacific spider mites. Spider mites are considered a kind of houseplant pests that feeds on the fluids within the plants, often significantly damaging the plants. They are also notorious for covering both houseplants and gardens in their tiny, messy webs, giving them the nickname “web-spinning mites.”

Life Cycles

Similar to most arthropods, all species of spider mites pass through four major life stages. They begin as eggs before morphing into their larval form where they have six, rather than their final eight, legs. By their first molt into a nymph, protonymph, these adolescent mites finally have developed all eight of their legs, and only have one last molt, the deutonymph, before finally transforming into their full adult forms. This entire process from an egg to adulthood lasts only about a week in duration, which means there are numerous generations of spider mites produced each month. These mites manage to use the wind to spread out after they’ve reached their adult stage, effectively “wind surfing” to find a new area in which to inhabit and mate. After mating, females can produce up to 300 eggs within the span of just a few weeks.

Habits and Habitats

Spider mites tend to exist in large groups and can often be found clustered on the underside of the leaves of both indoor and outdoor garden plants. These pests prefer dry, hot weather, often coming out around the end of spring and wreaking havoc on plants all through the summer. They also have a rather varied diet of plants that they like to consume including strawberries, eggplant, tomatoes, beans, melons, some trees, various houseplants and ornamental flowers. The first signs of damages are usually a collection of tiny mis-colored spots known as stippling. After prolonged damage from spider mites, entire leaves or stems can change color, shrivel up, and fall off.

Preventing Spider Mite Damage

Large infestations of spider mites cause very visible damage to plants, and often involve a lot of messy webbing on or around plants as well. However, it’s best to begin treating for these pests long before it gets to that point. At the first sign of webbing around your plants or stippling on the leaves, it’s time to call in your pest control specialists at Pointe Pest Control. We will help you save your plants before it’s too late.

Citations

The Difference Between an Insect and an Arachnid (2020) Allan’s Pet Center. Available at: https://allanspetcenter.com/the-difference-between-an-insect-and-an-arachnid/ (Accessed: October 2020). Godfrey, L. D. (2011) How to Manage Pests, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Available at: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7405.html (Accessed: June 7, 2021). Potter, M. (2008) Spider Mites on Landscape Plants, University of Kentucky College of Agriculture Food and Environment. Available at: https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef438 (Accessed: June 7, 2021). Spider Mites SUCK! (2019) Planet Natural Research Center. Available at: https://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/houseplant-pests/spider-mite-control/ (Accessed: June 7, 2021). Taxonomy (2020) Basic Biology. Available at: https://basicbiology.net/biology-101/taxonomy (Accessed: October 2020). Turfgrass – Spider Mites (no date) University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Department of Entomology. Available at: https://entomology.unl.edu/turfent/documnts/spmites.shtml (Accessed: June 7, 2021).