Gardner's Foe: European Red Mite

There are all kinds of pests that can plague garden-growers, but if your thing is fruit trees or ornamental bushes and plants, this arachnid is one of the worst.

It seems that most garden-eaters are insects, but European Red Mites are arachnids, which somehow makes it seem worse to have them in your garden. If you've seen the tiny red bugs roaming around or creating fine webbing, you should be wary.

What are they, why are they harmful, and what can you do about it? Find out here.

What Do European Red Mites Look Like?

Are European Red Mites Destructive?

How Can I Protect Against European Red Mites?

---

What Do European Red Mites Look Like?

The first step is to be able to identify the culprit. European Red Mites (ERM) are tiny. Like, really tiny. They are only about 0.015 inches big (that's about 1/3 of a millimeter, or the thickness of three sheets of paper stacked together). ERM are arachnids, related to spiders and ticks, which means they have eight legs. If you were able to really see them up close, the females are red with white spots and hair on their backs. The males are yellow and greenish black. Both have white legs. The eggs, were they not too small to see, would be highly noticeable because of their color, ranging from bright red to reddish-orange.

ERM overwinter as eggs and begin to hatch in the early spring, actually hatching with only six legs before growing into 8-legged adults. The females lay about 20 eggs in their lifetime, and there can be 7-9 generations of mites in Virginia each year.

Are European Red Mites Destructive?

ERM start feeding immediately upon hatching. Like many of the other pests we've covered in this blog, ERM feed on the juices inside the plant. However, unlike many other pests, in this case, they target the newly hatching leaves. While ERM prefer fruit trees (capable of destroying yields and quality of entire orchards), they will also happily feed on other woody trees and plants, such as ornamental bushes, roses, and the like.

In cases where the ERM has injured the plant, the plants' leaves will "bronze", meaning they will start to lose color or turn brown. They can also develop yellow or brown spots, indicative of an ERM infestation.

How Can I Protect Against European Red Mites?

While mites do have a few natural predators, such as predatory mites, it's hard to rely on these in your backyard garden or orchard. The best way to control spider mites is to start spraying a professional pest control product early in the spring and continue throughout the summer and fall.

Stay vigilant in monitoring your plants and make sure to deal with populations of ERM before they get out of control.

We're always here to help! Call us anytime!

For more information on Virginia pests, check out our other blogs and our pest library