Bug Identification

Hey guys, I got three autos growing in promix hp, 3gal pots.

The past couple weeks I've noticed a bug here and there. Very tiny and I could only ever find one at any given time and I'd try to find more, I would.

Right now, all three plants are nearly 7 weeks old, I happened to check them after work today and I quickly spotted at least two on one plant, different areas.

So, I just spent the past 3 and half hours trying to find one and get him under a scope. I eventually was able to snap a good shot on the leaf and then I caught one with some clear packing tape and attempted to take pictures. I have attached the pictures here along with shots of what the plants look like as well.


I've personally never had spider mites in four years of growing, I suppose I've been lucky. These kinda look like spider mites, but none that I've been able to commonly identify using numerous images from other forums. All I tend to find images of are the two-spotted mites, red carmine mites and hemp something mites. Insofar as I have seen, these don't look like those.

I did not notice any spots, these mites look almost translucent or a pale white, but neither could I find information on mites in that description, so I'm needing some expertise if anyone could kindly lend an eye!


So far, I don't think I've seen many leaves that had potentially been fed on, maybe 6-7 that I cut in an attempt to locate some more of the insects, I think on only one of them I found a single mite/bug/whatever. All the other leaves look impeccable, moreorless, I have been hitting them a little hard with PK, hence the nute burn on tips

Each of the pots also received 1 cup of neem seed meal prior to planting, so perhaps that provides some modicum of systemic protection?

Actually kinda starting to think maybe they're fuckin dust mites?? That's what they look like to me when trying to compare images. I did also recently have to clean the vents of heavy dust, though I used a wet/dry vac, they plants definitely got dusted, this was a couple weeks ago.

Though why dust mites might have remained on the plants, I don't know...I'm just trying to stay postive

Any ideas? I really need some help identifying these guys =(

If it helps, I can see these little buggers with the naked eye. I mean, they're small as hell, but if I look closely in good light, I can clearly see them scurrying.

I also do not see them in any heavy concentrations, I mean sometimes I can find 1 or 2 in like a minute, but more often than not, it can take me like 15-30 minutes to really find one, so they seem sparse.

They way I've been LSTing makes it difficult in some places to check the undergrowth, but I've been diligently checking what I can each day the underside of leaves and stems, so far I'm not seeing much activity except their presence.

I was trying to compare these to a broad mite, but these mites seem to have a lot of hairs on them and from what I've briefly read up on broad mites is that the males have no hairs and females have one long hair, anybody with experience otherwise?

I've read that they're also smaller than dust mites coming in a 0.1mm and dust mites ranging between 0.2-0.3mm, so perhaps that lends more credence to the possibility of them being relatively harmless dust mites, that I can see them visibly and that I've yet to notice any real damage?

Any possible sign of mite feeding on the leaves (which has been very minimal, maybe like 10-12 leaves between the 3 plants) is hard to attribute specifically to mites, as I do foliar spray occasionally and a lot of leaves tend to get splashed with nutrient water. Overall the leaves look healthy to me, more or less, with exception to the nute burn

They still concern me greatly, so if anybody can lend a more experience eye, I've only ever dealt with soil mites "/

It also seems like they're photosensitive, I can more easily find them just after the lights turns on, but after like 30 minutes to an hour, it becomes very difficult to locate them. I don't see too many, maybe 3-6 of them between the 3 plants.

From what I've read, this is a trait of dust mites but I was unable to find any references to broad mites being photosensitive.

russet mite

Kind of looked like broad or russet mites to me, and I've read that broad mites can be up to .2 to .3mm in size. I'm no expert though but I've also been reading up on broad mites a bit because my plant has been acting weird and I can't figure it out.

Here's a couple vids on someone who had broad mites in their facility, some pretty good information.

This guy explains a lot about these critters throughout the videos, such as where they like to hangout, ect.

This should give you a better idea of whether or not you have russet/broad mites.