6 replies to this topic

[Andreas Eils]

Dear cacti and succulent friends,

there are mites housing on my plants and in the soil of which I´m not aware whether they are pests or predators or whatever. There is no picture in the internet which shows this special mite - at least Google doesn´t find the exact one which may be because I don´t know the name of this special mate.

I have spend SOME time observing them below an 8-time magnifier. Finally I have drawn this creature and perhaps here´s someone who identifies this chap.



First: Compared to typical spider mites this species is approx. twice as large. You can easily watch them moving around with the naked eye. The body is less than 1 mm in length (the legs not included) and I can only guess it must be around 0,7 mm in length. The body of the adults is almost completely black or reddish-black. The mouthparts and the legs are light-coloured - yellowish-white to white-ochre.

The most noticable character are the very long front legs. The typical spider mites don´t have such extended front legs. The body of the adults is comparatively flat, not that spherical than of spider mites. Whereas the juveniles do have a spherical body and have a brilliant red, semi-translucent body.

I can watch these buddies occasionally on almost all of my plants - also on carnivores. They run mostly relatively quick - which is atypical for spider mites. And talking about spider mites: These blackish mites don´t seem to spin threads. They obviously don´t harm CPs. If they harm my Lithops and other Mesembs I don´t know! Mite damage is hardly spottable on Lithops (until it´s too late)! Faucaria and Titanopsis show brown spots on their leaves. However as these often attract typical spider mites, these damages may result from spider mites!
The mites I´m talking about here appear numerously after a heavy watering of the soil of my Lithops etc.! Then you can watch them running thrilled (panicked?) all over the substrate and also over the plants.

If I see them on the soil or on plants they usually move quickly. Only very few times I watched them moving slowly over a leaf. Not long ago one specimen walked comfortably on a Faucaria leaf, seemingly observing the surface of the leaf. My magnifier is of course too weak to recognise if a mite, an aphid or similar stitches into the leaf. ;-) Some years ago I spotted a lot of these mites on a Heliamphora hybrid. Most of the adults had very thin, broken streaks on the back - one longitudinal and one latitudinal - resembling a cross similar to that of a cross spider. The current mites don´t show this characteristic.

In case they are pests the worst fact about them is: They are resistent against acaricides and against some pesticides. They have survived treatments with Kiron, Kanemite, Dimethoat and Thiacloprid! The ones settled the Heli hybrid have been killed by Imidacloprid (Lizetan spray).

I have some hope that these mites are perhaps predators! That would be great!

By the way: I rarely notice the juveniles on my Lithops and Co.! They seem to have a good hideaway. The juveniles always move slowly and that is somehow worrying!

So, this is all information I can tell you about these acari. I hope here´s someone who can identify the species and can tell me if they are harmful or harmless and what to do if they are pests!

Thank you very much.

Andreas


PS: As for some details on the drawing I have orientated myself by a drawing of a grass mite --> http://www.gesundhei...e/grasmilbe.jpg ! Of course you cannot recognise single segments of a leg under an 8-time magnifier!

EDITED: Further research has resulted that this mysterious mite is most likely a Bryobia species - perhaps Bryobia praetiosa!

For comparison: http://entnemdept.uf...over_mite01.jpg

Edited by Andreas Eils, 02 July 2012 - 23:43 PM.

[maxxima]

Creepy!

Managed to get rid of them, Andreas ?

I had the red version on my cephalotus. A dose of Floramite killed them, haven't seen them since.

[Andreas Eils]

FLORAMITE??? YOU CAN OBTAIN FLORAMITE IN TURKEY as a private person? I have read about this acaricide but it´s incredibly expensive and is only sold to commercial gardeners here in Germany! *grrr!*

No, these critters are still having fun on my Lithops pots! However I consider to try Provado (Imidacloprid) on these beasts! The bright red ones are Bryobia ribis according to www information. There is not much information at all about these pests! Although I´ve found articles confirming these mites also enter houses and nourish on house plants....

Strange thing is: I cannot spot any damage on my plants in opposite to spider mite infestion... B-/

Kind regards

Andreas

Edited by Andreas Eils, 14 July 2012 - 23:11 PM.

[maxxima]

Ah no, you can't obtain it here. My relative brought it from the states, I bought a very very small bottle of it. But it's quite enough because a single dose kills all the mites and stays for 21 days. I am very happy with it, the most effective mite-killer i've ever used. Thanks to it, I've cured all spider mite infestations this year.

I can confirm the bright red ones definitely damage the plants. My cephalotus had the usual silvery stains on the leaves and stopped all growth until I cured it. The good part is that you can see them easily, they are pretty fast runners and the color gives them away.

Hope the provado works for you ! Mites are the stuff of nightmares. But do try to get Floramite if you can...It really works.

[will9]

Hi Andreas ,i think this are spiders not mites,i have seen them to on my plants but never harm them,i think she eat spidermites,if she are the same like i see ,bigger and like you say most are red?i let them live .
Cheers Will

[Andreas Eils]

Hi Willy,

well, interestingly I don´t see any harm at all on my carnivorous plants! Maybe Bryobia mites are choosy.

My particular spider mites are almost black with orange coloured legs. Only the nymphs are bright red. I also don´t see any signs of damage on my Lithops and Faucarias unless these bastards are only sucking on the lower parts of the lobes.

I have asked the office for plant protection which wrote about clover mites (actually gooseberry mites in German). They replied I´d need to send specimens of my mites for microscopic examination to them to be sure about the identity! Gosh! I bet that would cost me a petty penny! I will ask them what the price is for that examination and identification... maybe it´s not as expensive as I expect! :-/

So, I´ll be offline for about two weeks while I´m moving.

Until later! :-)

Andreas

[mantrid]

Andreas Eils, on 17 July 2012 - 01:17 AM, said:

Hi Willy,

well, interestingly I don´t see any harm at all on my carnivorous plants! Maybe Bryobia mites are choosy.

My particular spider mites are almost black with orange coloured legs. Only the nymphs are bright red. I also don´t see any signs of damage on my Lithops and Faucarias unless these bastards are only sucking on the lower parts of the lobes.

I have asked the office for plant protection which wrote about clover mites (actually gooseberry mites in German). They replied I´d need to send specimens of my mites for microscopic examination to them to be sure about the identity! Gosh! I bet that would cost me a petty penny! I will ask them what the price is for that examination and identification... maybe it´s not as expensive as I expect! :-/

So, I´ll be offline for about two weeks while I´m moving.

Until later! :-)

Andreas

You could send a photo by email to a local university department. I have done this for an unusual fly I found and they were happy to identify it for me free