Subject: Backyard bird and butterfly (and dragonfly too) watchingapplestar wrote:Another nice day. I was clearing the Creeping Charlie from a small bed to prep for planting and spied this tiny BRILLIANT RED critter ambling around. Just gorgeous! ...anyone know what it is? It's much bigger than a Red Spider Mite that sucks on house plants -- maybe about 1/32"-1/16"
applestar wrote:This turns out to be a member of my Garden Patrol in dress-uniform. It was ID'd for me as Red Velvet Mite. I looked it up and here's an exerpt:https://www4.uwm.edu/fieldstation/natur ... t_mite.cfm...a critter that dwells in soil and leaf litter...
Young RVMs are parasites (blood-suckers) on grasshoppers, daddy long-legs, beetles and other ground-dwelling, cold-blooded critters (including plant hoppers, apparently), which they attach to and ride around on. Adult RVMs eat insect eggs and prey on very small invertebrates (like ants) (if RVMs are on your plants, they’re hunting for something you probably don't want there). Because they consume some planr-eating insects and because they eat the animals that eat the organisms that carry out the important work of decomposition, RVMs are considered helpful to ecosystems.
