Soil dwelling mites

[Beng]

Soil dwelling mite predators and organic soil

Was out shifting fertilizer cakes and noticed a lot of tan semi transparent mites only in my smaller plants in grow pots. Most of these were bought from evergreen garden works last year which pots in a mostly organic medium. When I slip potted them last year I used a mostly inorganic medium outside the organic mediums rootball. Last fall I introduced Hypoaspis miles a beneficial predatory mite to all my plants but have used insecticides like Merit since then so i didn't think they survived, however I guess it's possible if they were in the egg stage. Plus merit doesn't effect mites much, in fact i've read it can increase populations. The organic medium in those pots has made for a hospitable environment for them to multiply. Used a 90mm lens to look at them, they most definitely look like Hypoaspis miles which is pretty cool. Wish they'd stayed in my inorganic soils but I guess they can't live in that kind of medium. Makes me think about adding a little bit of organic medium to all my soils in the future. They're probably able to eat the decomposing organic matter even if there aren't a lot of other bugs present.

Ben

 

[Beng]

If you want to do it yourself Avid is the best mite killer I think you can buy yourself.

 

[wireme]

Your hypoaspis mites eat other mites and don't harm the plant?

 

[dkraft81]

Thanks for the info. I have seeing some mite looking bugs in my soil and when I killed them they didnt smear like regular mites. Looking at your pic I think these are what I have. I treated my trees the other day though so hopefully they will make it if they are beneficial.

 

[Beng]

Your hypoaspis mites eat other mites and don't harm the plant?

Yes this type of mites is beneficial for the plant. But they can only live if there's decomposing matter in the soil or other mites for them to eat. They seem to have survived only on the trees I used pine bark in the soil on. The majority of my trees are in soil-less mixes and the mites have died off.

 

[wireme]

Cool, do they travel up into the foliage to eat mites there? I've never run into a mite problem yet knock on wood. I'm not even sure if they live here or not.

 

[Beng]

Cool, do they travel up into the foliage to eat mites there? I've never run into a mite problem yet knock on wood. I'm not even sure if they live here or not.

Hm I don't know if they travel up, my understanding was they live in the first few inches of the soil. they don't go on the tree much, mostly in the soil from what I can see. I haven't had spider mites problems for quite awhile though. I spray regularly from spring though summer now though with IGR's and the occasional insecticide. Somehow these mites have survived all that.