Tiny spiders (?) on pines

[Ply]

In the past few weeks I've been noticing small spiders/insects (?) on my pine sapplings. They're not on the needles, but rather on webs cast between the needles. Must have removed a couple dozen by now, but they keep coming back. Everyday I see about one or two on each tree. At first I assumed they weren't harmful to the trees, but rather just found them a nice spot to cast some webs. I do also have some needle tip browning though. I assumed they are just drying out a little because they've been recently potted, lost some roots and it's been warm the last week or two.

They're about 2mm or roughly 1/16th" in size. The spider deceivingly looks significantly bigger in this picture due to the zoom lens.
Second picture is of the browning tips.

Any idea what these are? Are they harmful to the tree and do I need to do something about them?

 

[19Mateo83]

Looks like mother natures natural pest control to me

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Spiders are probably youngsters who just hatched. They'll spread out and move on in a while.

The tips are normal behavior for pines. The tips of foliage are the furthest (farthest?) away from the sap stream and they dessicate faster than the rest of the needle. Especially if there have been frosts and with high nutrient availability.

If it happens in young needles, it's bad news - though expected if you feed heavily. If it happens in older needles, that's regular behavior of mother nature.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Just tiny harmless baby spiderlings.

 

[sorce]

I reckon they are full sized.

Sorce

 

[Ply]

Great, I'll just leave the little spiders alone and let them do their thing.

 

[Ply]

The tips are normal behavior for pines. The tips of foliage are the furthest (farthest?) away from the sap stream and they dessicate faster than the rest of the needle. Especially if there have been frosts and with high nutrient availability.

If it happens in young needles, it's bad news - though expected if you feed heavily. If it happens in older needles, that's regular behavior of mother nature.

Regarding the browning needles. I'm wondering whether I've been overwatering actually. I find it tough to see just visually whether the (pure) Vulkastrat (mix of pumice, lava and granite, for the uninitiated) is dry or not. It seems the top layer of the soil virtually dries up the minute you put down your watering can. But 2 or 3 cm below the surface the pumice actually still has more of that brown color, rather than the white color it gets when it's dried up. So it seems the mix might hold water and stays wet way longer than I thought at first. Hard to feel though with something so coarse. I've stuck a chopstick in there to help gauge it now, see if that will help.

My pine sapplings are in roughly 90% sun throughout the day, pure vulkastrat and a terracotta pot (differing sizes, but all vastly larger then bonsai containers). I was watering once a day, on all warm and sunny days (not on rainy, cloudy days).

How often do you currently water your pines planted in Vulkastrat?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Regarding the browning needles. I'm wondering whether I've been overwatering actually. I find it tough to see just visually whether the (pure) Vulkastrat (mix of pumice, lava and granite, for the uninitiated) is dry or not. It seems the top layer of the soil virtually dries up the minute you put down your watering can. But 2 or 3 cm below the surface the pumice actually still has more of that brown color, rather than the white color it gets when it's dried up. So it seems the mix might hold water and stays wet way longer than I thought at first. Hard to feel though with something so coarse. I've stuck a chopstick in there to help gauge it now, see if that will help.

My pine sapplings are in roughly 90% sun throughout the day, pure vulkastrat and a terracotta pot (differing sizes, but all vastly larger then bonsai containers). I was watering once a day, on all warm and sunny days (not on rainy, cloudy days).

How often do you currently water your pines planted in Vulkastrat?

I water mine daily, which is too often.
But just a bit too often, two days without water is risky in my yard..

If I would be able to water every 1.5 days, I'd do it. But I have to go to work.

I'm convinced though that the vulkastrat mix is airy enough to not cause any major issues as long as there's no fertilizer mudding up the pot holes.