phytoseiulus vs or spidermites?

I have a very small spider mite infestation, but i see some red ones when i look at them under the microscope. phytoseiulus also look red though and look very much like the spidermites. am i seeing a natural occurance of a predator of the spider mite here or is the orange reddish just the spider mite in adult form?

This is basically exactly what I see :


I'm going to order some ladybugs, i've been spraying with a mix of isopropyl/water/dish soap. but I'm getting bored of that and it isn't that great in flowering. About to start another round of seedlings here and I think it's time to just go the bug route. I want to also get praying mantis, because they're so cool, but I'm not sure if they will eat mites. From what i've read they seem to just leave them alone and go for bigger game. Would they go for the ladybugs? Mantis will cannabolize if there is no food. I'm thinking the freshly hatched mantis will eat the spider mites. They send eggs, not living mantis.

The white/black/red ones are spidermites. They have small white milky eggs that show a single brighter spot, you see some of them. You also see a dead spidermite carcass.

The other stuff must be from the red spiders (or bugs donno). The greater white structures seem to be a hatching place (? not sure).

Possibly predator mites. Predator mites appear like tiny red spiders and are much faster than spider mites with longer legs. They eat spider mites and many growers pay 50$ or more for a starter colony of these

I look for two spots on either side of the mites body to clarify it is a spider mite.

Oribated mites will infest soil surface and show themselves after watering. They are beneficial and only eat decaying matter and not plants. They can appear clear to red as they age. You won't see these on leaves though.

iHearAll said:

Possibly predator mites. Predator mites appear like tiny red spiders and are much faster than spider mites with longer legs. They eat spider mites and many growers pay 50$ or more for a starter colony of these

I look for two spots on either side of the mites body to clarify it is a spider mite.

Oribated mites will infest soil surface and show themselves after watering. They are beneficial and only eat decaying matter and not plants. They can appear clear to red as they age. You won't see these on leaves though.

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I don't see dots on the red ones. Def two spotted spidercunts on my plants though. Very plain to see. I first saw them on my very flavorful cheese plant. They spread after that. Not much damage at all and no webbing so far. Been dousing them with rubbing alcohol and water. Works well and I see lots of dead bodies afterwards but it causes the hairs on my buds to go brown.

sunandsky said:

I don't see dots on the red ones. Def two spotted spidercunts on my plants though. Very plain to see. I first saw them on my very flavorful cheese plant. They spread after that. Not much damage at all and no webbing so far. Been dousing them with rubbing alcohol and water. Works well and I see lots of dead bodies afterwards but it causes the hairs on my buds to go brown.

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Habanero or ghost pepper tea works against the spider mites without killing the predator mites. Same with a need oil solution. This way you can allow the predators to catch up to their food supply. The mantis won't eat spider mites from what I have read and neither will lady bugs. Lady bugs prefer soft body insects like a caterpillar. The mantis would eat your lady bugs though. I have briefly tried both but after more research i decided it was best to release them all into my vegetable garden to deal with those pests.

iHearAll said:

Habanero or ghost pepper tea works against the spider mites without killing the predator mites. Same with a need oil solution. This way you can allow the predators to catch up to their food supply. The mantis won't eat spider mites from what I have read and neither will lady bugs. Lady bugs prefer soft body insects like a caterpillar. The mantis would eat your lady bugs though. I have briefly tried both but after more research i decided it was best to release them all into my vegetable garden to deal with those pests.

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I had great results with ladybugs against aphids last year. Never had another aphid again. Found some posts that had people saying the ladybugs were great against spider mites as well. I guess I will see. Spiderkunts are much smaller than aphids. My first round though was with ladybugs I had ordered online, and they didn't completely kill off the aphid population. They came back. The second round I had ladybirds from outside (it was fall) and only had maybe 50 and they cleaned house. Guess I'll see. My mite infestation isn't nearly as bad as my aphid infestation was. I'll spray twice more with rubbing alcohol before the ladybugs get here and then put them in the tent. Ladybugs I'm hoping will eat the eggs as well. There won't be any other food in there, so I'm knocking on wood