A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum The Tomato Forum Red Mites.

Hello. I would like some advice. I have spotted some red mites on one of the containers that I'm growing my tomatoes in yesterday. About two weeks ago I put some blood meal fertilizer in the containers that I have my tomatoes in.

I'm wondering if I should worry about the red mites and if so what should I do. I'm also wondering what type of red mites that they might be.

Do I understand correctly that there are different types of red mites that feed on different types of things? I get the impression from what I've read that some red mites feed on blood and some feed on the plants.

Most of my tomato plants came from several different commercial greenhouses; to try to prevent from importing diseases and insects I treated all my tomatoes and plants with baking soda, insecticidal soap, and neem oil at the recommended dosages and methodologies. I decided to use the more politically correct organic method as I was told that he would be safer for my plants; yet many of my plants received moderate burns that apparently was from using the more politically correct methods that were supposedly more safe. Though I was assured by many people that insecticidal soap and neem oil was safer than conventional insecticides; when I read the labeling of the insecticidal soap and neem oil they both indicated that they could cause burning. I've never had my plants burn before using conventional insect decides, so now I'm a little leery about using so-called safe politically correct methods.

So far I've only seen a dozen of so mites on one container and haven't seen any on the plants yet though I haven't thoroughly looked. I'm wondering how prolific are red mites and how much damage do they do to tomato plants? If they are only a minor problem I might just choose to take no action.

I was thinking of using a sulfur treatment; but I think the manufacturers of the sulfur treatment that said on their labeling; to reduce the odds of a burn, not to use their product within two weeks of using a neem oil treatment. I'm afraid that my plants might be vulnerable because of their previous burn using neem oil, so I am on the fence whether I should wait another week or perhaps not even treat at all unless things get worse. If I have to use insecticide I would rather use it now than when the pollinators come. If I treat with insecticide now it probably won't harm hardly any beneficial insects; if I postpone much longer the odds are greater than I might harm beneficial insects.

I doubt people will agree on some of this but I was wondering what people's opinions were and why.

I actually doubt what you're seeing are a type of mite that might cause significant damage, but I can't be sure. Many insects might lurk on plants, pots, or soil for various reasons, these may be attracted to near micriscopic insects in the soil, benign fungal growth, no telling. They might just be taking a look around.
See if you can stick with organic methods for anything you plan to eat, and for sure, don't overdo with fertilizer or insecticide. Try to spray in the late afternoon to avoid phytotoxicity, in other words, susceptibility to sunburn do to the spray.
I don't use any pesticides or fungicides until I see a distinct problem. Unfortunately, some fungal diseases can only be stopped by preventive spraying of Daconil, but I take the risk, as I want what I grow to be as chemical free as possible.

I have never heard of Daconil. Not that I'm any kind of expert.

It's an interesting product but I think I will stay away from it because I skimmed the label and didn't see any reference to tomatoes or similar food crops. For the most part it looks like it is for grass, ornamentals, trees and some fruit trees.

I've been growing tomatoes in the ground for 40 years and did a lot wrong yet had great results. Now I'm disabled and live under different circumstances and planting in the ground is no longer practical. growing in containers and closer together, and with not quite as much light seems to make the plants more susceptible to disease and parasites; I seemed to have a problem with late blight the last couple of years. Last summer toward the end was pretty bad, with a relatively cool and wet summer.

Typically I only use pesticides once before the plants start blooming; however if an infestation becomes excessive I will use pesticides. In the past I have been lucky in that most the time the pests stayed at us tolerable level and until I started growing in containers with less light and less space I never had significant enough problem to notice any funguses, viruses or bacterias.

In a week I might use sulfur. I plan to alternate baking soda solution treatments and milk solution treatments every week or two as maintenance. If there was an outbreak of fungus or insects I was hoping that as needed neam oil would be sufficient.

Unless someone raises a flag or the red mite infestation gets worse I will try to tolerate the red mites for now.


That's good advice however,I think you may have misinterpreted what I said. When I said my tomato plants were burned by the insecticidal soap and the neem oil; the burns seem to be chemical burns, not Sun scald.

When I sprayed my tomato plants it was about 8 p.m. it was still light but the sun was below the tree line and was getting close to setting. I typically water and use insecticides in the late evening or early morning to prevent the plants from getting sunburn and it's usually easier on me. I have a tendency to overheat easily and my eyes don't like the bright sunlight.

Well, I'm relatively new to growing compared to you, but I've done some research, and I've used some sprays....
I've not seen chemical burn, but like I say, a few years is not comparable to your experience.
Sounds to me like you have a good feel for what you're doing, I don't know that I can help...
please keep us updated, as we all benefit from each other's experiences.
I do know of a number or people who grow in containers with good results, but my efforts at that have been somewhat disappointing as I've not gotten the exact soil mix down to perfection, and had less fruit than I would have had growing in the ground. Watering was somewhat challenging as well. I've not planted any tomatoes in containers this year, partly because I have poor soil and would need to buy most of what goes into a proper mix...
Sorry I can't be of more help. PM me anytime if I can be helpful, I truly wish I could be of more assistance.

I did some more surfing on Daconil and unless I got my names confused it seems it is recommended for tomatoes. I was surfing the Internet about tomato diseases and ran onto an article that was about Daconil or some similar named product that was recommending it for tomatoes and I went to a link and it had a bottle with an illustration of tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables so that seems to imply that it is safe to use on typical fruits and vegetable crops meant for human consumption. When I woke up this morning I tried to find it in my browser history, and regrettably it wasn't in my browser; browser crashes occasionally dumps some of my browser history.

I've been raising tomatoes for a long time, but I'm really not as knowledgeable as I should be for as long as I've been raising tomatoes and probably the vast majority here have knowledge than I do. Nature has a way of keeping me humble.

For about 40 years I was making compost out of garden waste, yard waste, wildlife waste, cigarette butts, and there was probably even some inadvertent dog waste in the compost pile. The compost pile probably had a plethora of wild and domesticated diseases and insects; I used it for compost for tomatoes, I planted tomatoes in the same spot for over 40 years and never had a noticeable virus or bacteria problem and only occasionally had insect problems, nothing that couldn't be brought under control with a single treatment of malathion (just white flies or Japanese Beatles on a few occasions). There were some aphids but they never seem to need intervention, as a natural predators seem to keep them in check; fortunately what little damage they did was tolerable. I did a lot of things wrong and really didn't have any instruction I just went by dead reckoning for the most part. The few times that I used insecticides I simply looked at the illustration skimmed the product details to decide if the product was appropriate and use the chart to determine the ratio. Despite my simple ways and dead reckoning and doing so many things that are supposedly wrong; I managed to have great success. However that was when I was planting and ground, had an area that had good drainage but also managed to get a fair amount of water.

Now that I'm more knowledgeable, more careful and more scientific my results haven't been as good, though regretfully my only reasonable choice now is container gardening with only a few hours of direct sun a day. I must've had more dumb good luck and common sense when I was younger.

If I could find it I might pick up a bottle of Daconil and read up on it and pick the brain of my local supplier.

Last year I noticed a lot of speckles on my leaves and shortly after that appeared, I started to have problems with what was apparently late blight. I'm now starting to suspect that the speckles I saw last year may have been injuries from spider mites (or some other insect) and those open injuries may have given a pathway for blight to enter the plants.

Last year I noticed a lot of speckles on my leaves and shortly after that appeared, I started to have problems with what was apparently late blight. I'm now starting to suspect that the speckles I saw last year may have been injuries from spider mites (or some other insect) and those open injuries may have given a pathway for blight to enter the plants.

I'm still hoping that I won't have to use much insecticide this year. I've planted some plants that are supposed to attract beneficial insects that are predators that are supposed to attack and eat most common insect pests. If I spray with insecticides I will try to avoid the plants that are supposed to lure the beneficial insects.

The spider mites that I've seen on my containers now might just be attracted by the blood meal, they might be a type of spider mites that feed off of blood. I was reading about a type that commonly infest chicken coops and animal nests.

My near vision isn't too hot so I doubt I can specifically identify the type of might and that's also partly why I have difficulty reading labels.

I guess I should buy a microscope and do some more research on mites. I never did get a good look at the red mites, but I suspect the red mites that I have are a beneficial type of mite.

I think I may have "Red Velvet Mite". Supposedly it might be a beneficial type of mite, that is beneficial to the soil and are parasites to gnats and grasshoppers and other pests.

I see no evidence of any damage yet; so I suspect the mites I have are the beneficial type of red velvet mite.