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Why You Should Get A Professional To Get Rid Of The Little Red Spider Mites In Your YardWhat are these tiny creatures? Under a microscope, they look like little red spiders. If you step on them or squish them with your finger they leave a bright red stain, which is annoying. Are they a nasty pest or harmless insect? Should you be concerned? Can they cause an infestation?
And what are they called anyhow? Is there a way to identify what those little red bugs are? Do they damage to host plants? These are all common and important questions. We hope we can answer them for you. Keep reading to find out more about those tiny red bugs.
Clover Mites Or Spider Mites
OK, a tiny red bug is a not a real name but a good description. Can we tell what they are? Actually, there are a few types of bugs that fit that description. The most common are Spruce spider mites, European red mites, Southern red mites, Clover mites, and spider mites. Here are a few ways to tell which ones are crawling around your home.
Clover Mites
These little red guys tend to be found moving around on concrete surfaces, asphalt driveways, sidewalks, window sills, and sidings. In fact, they like to stay on inanimate surfaces instead greenery. Children often notice them when they’re playing outdoors in the spring and summer when clover mites are in greater numbers.
To the naked eye, clover mites are tiny but you can see them as fast-moving little dots. Looking closely or through a magnifying lens, you can see they are fully red in color. They aren’t actually insects but a type of arachnid (related to ticks and spiders). They
Spider Mites
Spider mites are also tiny and red but tend to be on plants and trees. While these could be the tiny red bugs on concrete you have seen, they tend to stick to plants and trees and like to rest on shrubs. It’s possible to see them occasionally crawl across asphalt or concrete but not to the degree of clover mites.
They are smaller than clover mites and difficult to see with the naked eye. Both species are preyed on by other insects so to keep their population numbers up they reproduce often by laying eggs, mostly during the spring and fall.
Are Clover Mites A Threat?
Clover mites are annoying but aren’t harmful to us or to pets. They don’t bite or cause any structural damage to our home. However, the bad news is that they can invade your home and building in large numbers usually during early spring or fall.
They get into your home through tiny openings and cracks around windows and door and you’ll typically find them crawling around directly on windows, window sills, and on walls. They do leave tiny red stains when crushed or squashed so avoid doing so if they are crawling on walls, carpets, or furniture.
Often, you can find hundreds of them outside the home and outdoor surfaces such as sidings, brick, and concrete pathways. The clover mite loves the warmest and sunniest side of the home.
These tiny clover mites feed on the lawn grass, clovers, and other plants around the home (up to 200 different plants) by sucking the sap. The more lawn there is, the more clover mites you’re likely to have. They also feed off mold, algae, and moss.
Flat roofs with moss covering (such as commercial, industrial buildings) often have clover mite infestations. Also, a problem that can potentially become an indoor infestation, coming in through windows or cracks.
Are Spider Mites A Threat?
The little spider mites can also be a nuisance as well. They are a nasty garden pest that can target many types of plants but most frequently they affect camellias and azaleas. Your prized flowers and plants are at risk if you’ve identified the presence of red spiders.
Although tiny they can create significant damage. They drain plants by piercing individual plant cells and extracting the contents. This results in the appearance of tiny speckles on plant leaves (yellow or white). After a spider mite feeds for some time the leaf takes on a bronze coloration.
The damage causes the leaf to die and drop off the plant. With a red spider mite infestation plants will have a general unhealthy appearance and a dusty appearance on the underside of their leaves as well as leaving webs. Indeed, infested plants will often be become discolored as well as covered with webs, as well as becoming defoliated.
This may eventually kill the plant. These are most typically the southern spider mite. Red European mites are also an invasive pest to gardens. Red European mites attack fruit trees, typically apple.
Again, significant attack and damage to your fruit trees can be disheartening. Indeed, both types of spider mites can cause permanent damage to your plants if you have an infestation that isn’t treated on time. Spider mites are most active during spring or fall.
Clover Mite Control And Professional Help
Trying to take care of a clover mite problem may require professional support. Most types of over-the-counter pesticide products don’t do the trick when it comes to controlling clover mites and other do-it-yourself approaches require a lot of time and work. This is probably not something you have enough of when dealing with an infestation problem.
If you don’t have the time or resources to take care of this irritating and annoying problem, then getting efficient assistance is often the best approach. Going with a pest control professional means getting specialized products that are effective on clover mites.
Eradicating them from your home can often eliminate the need to even use pesticides indoors. Treating clover mites on time before they cause a nuisance indoors means getting professional help in early spring and late summer before the infestation can occur.
Although they often die indoors within a few days, it can be a real bother and they can produce unsightly red stains on furniture, carpets, and walls—something to be avoided if possible. In addition, professional exterminators offer guarantees on the results of their work so you can be assured the clover mite problem will be taken care of.
Spider Mite Control And Professional Help
If you’ve determined that you have spider mites they could or may already have done some considerable damage to your plants or fruit trees. This can be both worrying and very irritating considering the time and effort you spend in your garden and yard. Getting rid of spider mites can be tricky because spider mites require specific pesticides.
These are not easily available over-the-counter. In fact, some insecticides can actually backfire and boost spider mite populations. Certainly not something you want! Specialized pesticides are the best solutions for spider mite infestations. By contacting a pest control expert, you can be sure to get the right product and approach in eliminating spider mites from your garden and yard.
A professional consultation and treatment strategy can ensure you that a spider mite problem gets under control with the guarantee of success. It is certainly a relief when expert knowledge and assistance is available to save your prized plants and trees from attack and damage.
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