noticed some red spider mites crawling over my shallots earlier today - should I be worried, or live and let live ?
May I suggest that, if they were RED, they weren't RSM - which are brown - & so TINY that you'd be hard pushed to see them!
Are these yours?? http://bugguide.net/node/view/2419/bgimage
Right or wrong, I have never found cause to dispose of them.
It sems to be a good/bad year fro these little blood spiders. TALOTA!
Blood spiders - that's the term!
Do you reckon they're pests, Eric?
No, only nuisances, and anyway they eat other creatures so red mites may be on the menu!
So sorry - RSM quote - they go red in the Autumn. By which time, if you still have them, you've lost everything!!
Hmm, seems like maybe they are not so good to have around. They were very tiny and guess could have been a brownish-red, but they showed up quite easily against the soil.
Will have another look at the w/e and see how many I can spot - the shallots are planted at the base of a fruit tree (apple) ... maybe they're after the tree not the shallots.
Would watering with a bit of fairy liquid help ?