This web-slinger isn’t your friendly neighborhood spider mite.
Published March 31, 2016
The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, is one of the most common and widely distributed spider mites in the United States. These mites prefer the hot, dry weather of the summer and fall months, but may occur anytime during the year. Overwintering females hibernate in ground litter or under the bark of trees or shrubs.
Spider mites spin fine strands of webbing on host plants.
David Cappaert, Michigan State University, Bugwood.org
The two-spotted spider mite is a general feeder that attacks a wide variety of plants including shade trees, shrubs, and flowers. Like all mites, two-spotted spider mites have needle-like, piercing-sucking mouthparts. Because of their small size and habit of feeding on the underside of foliage, this species may go undetected until a population has caused serious damage to a plant. This species is known by several other common names such as “red spider mite” or “glasshouse spider mite.”
They are more commonly found on perennials than woody plants, but they have a particular fondness for roses.
If you’ve counted the legs, you know that once these mites grow out of their larvae stage, they do have four pairs of legs. That’s one similarity to their namesake. But that’s not the only thing spider mites have in common with the arachnids. All spider mites spin fine strands of webbing on their host plant, hence the name.
