Little Red/Tan bugs in my soil

[woodstock]

Hey all!

Orange County Juniper nana and I have little red/tan bugs (very tiny) scurrying around in the soil (can't see too many on the tree itself). Recommended pesticide or solutions?? Don't want to loose this tree especially to some little critters that may be eating away at it! I acquired the tree about a month ago.

Cheers in advance!

 

[Beng]

Hey all!

Orange County Juniper nana and I have little red/tan bugs (very tiny) scurrying around in the soil (can't see too many on the tree itself). Recommended pesticide or solutions?? Don't want to loose this tree especially to some little critters that may be eating away at it! I acquired the tree about a month ago.

Cheers in advance!

Probably mites can you get a picture? If you turn a photographic lens upside and put it up against your iphone or camera lens you should be able to get an image of them.

 

[Poink88]

...or use a regular camera and use macro setting.

Hard to give suggestions w/o knowing what the bug is.

 

[woodstock]

At work can't grab a picture until this evening but I looked up mites on google and they look pretty similar... friend or foe? and if foe, best way to (ex)TERMINATE!

 

[thumblessprimate1]

Mites are foes. Kill them sons of bi4@ch3s!

 

[Poink88]

If it is red mites, there are many remedies out there. The simplest and least toxic way that I tried is this. Mix water and liquid milk at 50%-50% ratio, add a squirt of dishwashing liquid (do not use anti-bacterial) on a liter sprayer and spray the tree. Repeat after 2 days. That should get rid of them.

Note: the tree will smell sweet and leaves (on broadleaf) will be shiny but will start to peel off a few days later. Not sure how it will look like in a juniper, haven't tried it yet.

Good luck!

 

[dkraft81]

Im no expert on bugs, with that in mind... this past summer I noticed after watering that I would see little mites running around that looked just like you described. I freaked out a bit because like others said mites are bad. The problem was none of my trees had any ill effects going on. I ended up looking them up on the web and discovered that they were probably a predetory mite. If I remember right I treated once for mites in between discovering this. Since then I have seen them occasionally on a couple different tress, and none of them have had adverse effects.

For what its worth here is a pdf I found during my searches. It seems that if they move fast or slow is kinda the deciding fact of friend or foe.
www.uvm.edu/~entlab/Greenhouse IPM/Pests.../Patory.pdf

 

[woodstock]

Dario- thanks! I'll look into trying the milk solution.

Dusty- I'm a little more relieved now! Thank you! Your link didn't work though. In my case, the mights move pretty quick (then again I don't know how a slow mite moves lol) and like I said they are in the soil. They emerged when I watered last night.

I now know this is the "biggest issue for Junipers in Southern California" so it's great to have all of your help!

 

[dkraft81]

Sorry about that. Try this one.

http://www.uvm.edu/~entlab/Greenhouse IPM/Pests&Beneficials/PredatoryMites.pdf

 

[woodstock]

Here are some pics!

 

[woodstock]

kind of hard to get the focus with them moving around so quickly. they are the little tan oval shapes if that helps at all lol

 

[thumblessprimate1]

I can see them in images 1,2, and last. They don't look like mites. They look more like aphids. Aphids are bad too, no offense to the Aphid who posts on BN. Still kind of hard to tell from fuzzy pics. Try getting a dead one. Maybe drop it in some alcohol before taking the picture.

 

[edprocoat]

Mites are a problem on Junis all over the country. They are not real clear but do not look like mites, hard to tell from the photo. The alcohol trick might work as mentioned earlier, at least get them drunk enough to pass out so you could scribble profanities on their face and take pictures.

ed

 

[dkraft81]

I agree with the others guys doesnt look like a mite. Definitely not what I had in my soil either.

 

[Beng]

Look like some kind of aphid to me, not a mite.