Red Spider Mite

Tetranychus urticae

Appearance

• Body soft and small barely visible to the naked eye.
• In their juvenile stage they have 3 pairs of legs, adults have 4 pairs of legs.
• Generally they are red in colour in the autumn/winter, the rest of the year adults vary from off white to green in colour.

Lifecycle

• Eggs are laid in small clusters on the underside of leaves near the mid vein.
• All stages of the life cycle feed on plant phloem.
• The whole life cycle from egg to egg can be as short as 8 days but this is highly dependant on the ambient air temperature.

Habits

• Feeds on a wide variety of plants, causing speckling and bronzing of leaves.
• Predominately found in glasshouses.