AusBonsai

This morning I noticed a few bugs (only two) on two of my trees.

They look like little red spiders or ants and move quick.

They are visible to the naked eye and you don't have to get in that close to see them.

I've looked up red spider mite and haven't been able to identify the pest yet.

Over to you...

Not mites. (they are barely visible). There is a preditory mite which is quite large (half the size of a pinhead) and looks like its covered in red felt. Just to be sure, spray the thing with the most toxic thing you can find.

Definitely not RSM. Is the tree unhealthy? If not, I would just ignore it. Our trees are after all ecosystems on their own. You will not be able to see RSM unless you tap them off the foliage onto a piece of white paper.

Andrew Legg wrote:Definitely not RSM. Is the tree unhealthy? If not, I would just ignore it. Our trees are after all ecosystems on their own. You will not be able to see RSM unless you tap them off the foliage onto a piece of white paper.

The trees aren't unhealthy!

Daluke wrote:
They look like little red spiders or ants and move quick.

They are visible to the naked eye and you don't have to get in that close to see them.

I have them as well. Individuals, not RSM I think

I found another.

My hands are average size (for scale of course).

A bit blurry but it looks like a red velvet mite which is a predator and harmless.

treeman wrote:A bit blurry but it looks like a red velvet mite which is a predator and harmless.

Most Trombidiidae are about 5mm when adult - what I'm seeing are 1mm as adults. Still, likely arachnids

A search on .edu.au and .gov.au does show miniture "Trombidium" as a pest but this may or may not be the same thing.

Indeed they are more likey to be TrombiculidaeHarvest mites" which are animal parasites.