FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

HI all
I have these tiny red bugs in my pot of 5 VFTs. The bugs only seem to be affecting 2 plants. They are tiny red bugs that move pretty fast. I have seen them on 1 plant and in the LFS. Can someone please tell me how to get rid of these? Brand name and all of whatever I need. I am not to good at finding the stuff myself as I am afraid I will get the wrong stuff and I hurt my plants even more. Here is a picture of 1 plant a few days ago,you can see where it looks like something has been chomping the leaves. Since I have taken this picture a few days ago,it now looks like on a different plant its the same thing but it is happening to the trap.
Thanks for any help

My guess is spider mites?

And you could try orthene (active ingredient acephate), or neem oil if it are those. =]

I can't tell from the picture, but they may be predatory running mites. If they are, they won't bother your plants, seeing as they eat other bugs and are considered beneficial. I've had them on my plants last year and they didn't bother them one bit. They're red and seem to run really fast, relative to their size. They'll eventually move on in search of their prey and leave your plants behind. There's no reason to try and kill them or get rid of them.

Munchie
even VFT's despite what people say can and will get mites, its more common than people think, and there are many types of mite some you can see unless you have a magnifier glass , they affect the plants greatly , causing all sorts of problems,in stunted growth trap die back,black tipping , and just make the plant look unhealthy of which it is if it being attacked by mites.
solution is easy, get your self some mite-a-side , or wettable sulfur and mix to directions of ornamental plants and spry the affected plants, if u have more than one plant chances are the other will be infected too and should be treated to day , do not delay !! longer you put it off the longer your plant will take to recover or even die , from many years of experience, your VFT's should be sprayed first thing is spring even year and if still looking sick or not booming with growth another spray should fix it , that and in full sun and good quality rain water with a quality potting mix should grow excitedly quickly

J

I only added a picture to show the damage to the leafs of the plant. The same plants has 1 more other leaf the same way and 1 of the traps were half eaten. The damage is to the leaf on the left. Does this look like a pest I should be worried about? Or does it look like something bigger was attacking the plant?
Thanks
Oh Snapperhead,where do I get that mite-a-side? and will it harm my VFTs?

The picture is not very clear, but it doesn't appear to have any mite damage. I can only see one damaged leaf (@ 9 o'clock) but it looks like it was eaten by a larger bug than a mite. Mites tend to cause a speckling pattern. Last winter I was finding some bugs on my VFTs that looked like tiny red spiders that moved quite fast. I was afraid they were red spider mites, but they were actually much bigger than spider mites and turned out to be a beneficial predatory mite called a Whirligig Mite:

I doubt it is mites if they are moving quickly and you can see them easily without any visual aid. I don't see any pest damage on the plant in the photo.

If they squish red, they are clover mites. Nothing to worry about. Hard to tell with the pic though. Spider mites cause speckling (yellowing in an irregular pattern), so it should be pretty obvious. When their numbers jump (and they really do with heat) they will start webbing on the undersides of the leaves, and by then without treatment, it's too late. Trust me, I'm an entomology research assistant, I raise spider mites to kill them haha .

I know this is a super old post, but thanks for sharing your experiences here. I was worried I might have spider mites, but from the picture here and my own photo I took, looks like I have a Whirligig mite chilling in my VFT. As long as he helps keep other pests away from my plant, I'm cool with him being there. It was just concerning when I didn't know what it was. Thanks again for this.