Red spider mite

“ The most highly organized mite (and by its structure most closely allied to the spider) is the little red garden mite, belonging to the genus Trombidium, to which the genus Tetranychus is also nearly related. Our own species of the former genus have not been "worked up," or in other words identified and described, so that whether the European T. holosericeum Linn. is our species or not, we cannot tell. The larvæ of this and similar species are known to live parasitically upon Harvestmen (Phalangium) , often called Daddy-long-legs; and upon Aphides, grasshoppers and other insects. ”

“ It is seldom noticed, being so small, and the uninitiated are often alarmed at the symptoms. Saleratus water or salt water will allay the irritation, but sulphur ointment effects a speedy cure.
Another red mite, belonging to a different genus, makes itself useful by preying on insects. One species, Trombidium parasiticum (Fig. 2) , is found on the house-fly, which in some seasons is so infested that hardly one can be caught that is not loaded with mites clinging to the base of its wings. This or closely related species are found on spiders and mosquitoes, which they help to kill off. ”

“ The soft soap serves as a vehicle to retain the bitterness of the quassia upon the bines and leaves, making them repulsive to the aphides, which are thus starved out. Another pest, the red spider, Tetranychus telarius—really one of the “spinning mites”—is most destructive in very hot summers. Congregating on the under surfaces of the leaves, the red spiders exhaust the sap and cause the leaves to fall, producing the effect known in Germany as “fire-blast.” The hop-wash of soft soap and quassia, so effective against aphis attack, is of little avail in the case of red spider. ”

“ I think it can be said that there never has been one absolutely authentic case of spider bite. The so-called spider bites received occasionally, and generally in early summer, often in bed, are inflicted by certain bloodsucking insects of several species, large and small. The mandibles of the average-sized spiders are hardly powerful enough to pierce the human skin, and all of the poison contained in an arachnid’s glands, injected into the flesh of a human being, will not make as much fuss as a respectable bee-sting. ”

“ Mites are not true insects, but are the most degraded of spiders. The sub-class Arachnida are at once recognized by their eight legs. The order of mites (Accorina) , which includes the wood-tick, cattle-tick, etc., and mites, are quickly told from the higher orders--true spiders and scorpions--by their rounded bodies, which appear like mere sacks, with little appearance of segmentation, and their small, obscure heads. The mites alone, of all the Arachinida, pass through a marked metamorphosis. Thus the young mite has only six legs, while the mature form has eight. ”

“ The colour is bright red, changing to a deep orange. The red mite lives freely upon the foliage, and does not produce a web, as do related species; the adult female is bright red to dark brownish-red, rather globular in shape, with comparatively stout legs and numerous spine-like hairs on the back. Although the eggs of the European red mite are exposed on bark and readily accessible to sprays during the winter, no effective winter wash for their control is yet known; the most satisfactory method for checking the pest is to spray the active stages of the mite with summer oil. ”

“ When these pests are present in large numbers, the leaves on which they feed soon present a sickly yellow or scorched appearance, for the supply of sap is drawn off by myriads of these little mites, which congregate on the under sides of the leaves, where they live in a very delicate web, which they spin, and multiply very rapidly; this web and the excrement of the red spider soon choke up the pores of the leaves, which, deprived of their proper amount of sap, and unable to procure the carbon from the atmosphere which they so much need, are soon in a sorry plight. ”

“ Fig. 15.
If let alone, no spiders bite any thing except insects useful for food; but, when attacked and cornered, all species open their jaws, and bite if they can; their ability to do so depending on their size, and the strength of their jaws. Notwithstanding the number of stings and [Pg 34] pimples that are laid to spiders, undoubted cases of their biting the human skin are very rare; and the stories of death, insanity, and lameness from spider-bites, are probably all untrue. ”

“ I don’t believe you are feeling a bit afraid of spiders now, are you? There is no reason why we should fear them, for they don’t bite or sting us; and if they did the poison that paralyses and kills their prey would not hurt us. Besides, they kill the insects that harm us. I saw a spider’s web once full of mosquitoes, and you know what worrying little pests they are. I was glad to see so many caught, but sorry for the spider, as they didn’t look a very substantial meal. ”

“ Six or eight inch square pieces of half rotten very dry boards laid in pairs, one above the other, also make capital traps; the wood lice gather there to hide themselves; these traps should be examined frequently and the insects shaken into the pail containing water and kerosene.
Mites.—Two kinds of mites are very common about mushrooms in spring and summer; one is whitish and smaller than a "red spider" (one of the commonest insect pests among garden plants) , and the other is yellowish and as large as or larger than a "red spider." ”

“ Insect Foes of Asters
The red spider and aphis have no special fondness for the Aster. They get after it when it comes in their way, as they do anything else. But the Aster has two implacable enemies that by their ravages have done more to discourage people from growing these plants than all other causes combined. These two foes are blister beetles and root lice.
Red spider bothers in hot dry weather. Water is their foe. When the familiar thin, half-dying foliage appears, grey on the under-side and showing a few fine webs underneath, there is no mistaking the signs. It is the red spider. ”

“ Wounds inflicted by large spiders, centipedes, tarantulae, and scorpions have proved fatal. Even in our country deaths, preceded by gangrene, have sometimes followed the bite of a mosquito or a bee, the location of the bite and the idiosyncrasy of the individual probably influencing the fatal issue. In some cases, possibly, some vegetable poison is introduced with the sting. Hulse, U.S.N., reports the case of a man who was bitten on the penis by a spider, and who subsequently exhibited violent symptoms simulating spinal meningitis, but ultimately recovered. ”

“ A number of experiments have been made in England to ascertain the effect of the bite of the larger geometrical spiders upon the experimenter himself, upon other spiders, and upon common insects; and the conclusion was, that it produces no greater effect than the prick of a pin, or any other injury of equal extent and severity; while the speedy death of its victim is ascribed to the spider's sucking its juices, rather than to any poison instilled into the wound. But these experiments, though somewhat reassuring, are not conclusive ”

“ There is no actual proof that this spider is more poisonous than others, but it is a significant fact that its species, inhabiting countries as widely separated as Chile, Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand and South Europe are held in great fear by the indigenous population, and many stories are current of serious or fatal results following their bites. Many of the species of these spiders, moreover, are very conspicuously coloured, being either wholly black or black relieved by fiery red spots, forcibly suggesting that they are warningly coloured. ”

“ The red spider however is very injurious and destructive to different sorts of plants and fruit-trees, especially in forcing houses. It is found particularly so to those of the forced French bean, melon; peach, vine, cherry, currant, and some other kinds. The generation and production of this insect are greatly caused and promoted by the dry warm heat that is constantly kept up in the houses which contain these sorts of plants and trees, and there are many other circumstances which combine in bringing it forth. It is an insect which has no wings, and the female is oviparous. ”

“ These great spiders of the tropics hunt for prey in much the same way. Only instead of catching flies on walls they prowl [391] about the branches of trees in search of small birds, springing upon them when they are roosting at night, and killing them almost immediately by a smart bite from their venomous fangs. These spiders, of course, are very large. Indeed, the body of a full-grown bird-spider is as big as a man's fist, while its great hairy legs cover nearly a square foot of ground when they are fully spread out. ”

“ Baby spiders will eat culture foods such as Thrypolium, drosophilia, fruit fly and house fly larvae. As they grow, they will eat house flies and later on cockroaches.
Cleaning the prey remains and moults is a must. Two containers should be used. Every week the used one should be washed with soap and water, and allowed to dry in the sun.
The legs of the stands on which the spider containers are kept should be placed in bowls of water or oil to avoid ants. The adults should be fed well before allowing them to mate. Spiders will tolerate moderate room temperature. ”

“ His food makes the glue that makes the web. Spiders work hard. So they must eat much.
“But they bite.” They will not bite you if you do not hurt them. If they do, the bite will do you no harm. They bite insects to kill them.
[Pg 61]
Do you not eat fish, meat, and birds? Who kills this food for you?
“But the spider is not pretty.” True, his shape is not pretty, nor are his long hairy legs pretty. Just see his fine black or gold coat!
If he is not pretty, he is wise and busy. Webs are very pretty, if spiders are not.
Spiders eat flies and all kinds of small bugs. ”

“ The red spider is another insect that does deadly work in the window-garden, especially in rooms where the temperature is high and there is little moisture in the air—a condition that generally prevails in the ordinary living-room. This pest is so small that its presence is seldom suspected until considerable injury has been done to the plants it works on. ”

“ Certainly spiders prey as a rule on insects and no doubt kill many which might injure us, and in the constant battles between man and insect pests, instances have been recorded where particular species of spider have fought on the side of man with appreciable effect. But then they are as likely to devour our insect friends as our insect enemies, impartially slaying the just together with the unjust, so that little stress can be laid on their utility on this score. ”

“ Some of the mites spin irregular threads on plants, or cocoons for their eggs; and many insects spin cocoons in which to pass through the change from larva to adult. In the spiders the spinning-organs are much more complicated, and used for a greater variety of purposes,—for making egg-cocoons, silk linings to their nests, and nets for catching insects. The spider’s thread differs from that of insects, in being made up of a great number of finer threads laid together while soft enough to unite into one. ”

“ It does not seem to be generally known that spiders secrete a poison of a very active nature, the effects of which are similar to those produced by snake poisons. The bite of the common house-spider is quickly fatal to flies and other insects on which it preys; when a fly is bitten by a spider its whole body seems seized by violent convulsive twitchings, and death generally occurs after a few minutes. ”

“ Even though it should be adhering to the very edge of its web, the insect always runs instantly to the middle, where it can most effectually shake the web, and so successfully entangle its prey. When the web is torn, the spider immediately sets about repairing it, and that so neatly, that nothing like patching can ever be seen. The spider lies in wait even for the young of 248 the lizard, and after enveloping the head of the animal, bites its lips; a sight by no means unworthy of the amphitheatre itself, when it is one’s good fortune to witness it. ”

“ He has failed to thoroughly substantiate a single case of death from a so-called spider bite, and has concluded that there is only one spider in the United States which is capable of inflicting a serious bite—viz., Latrodectus mactans, a species belonging to a genus of world-wide distribution, the other species of which have universally a [Pg 32] bad reputation among the peoples whose country they inhabit. ”

“ The disgust aroused by the spider is by no means a just one, and the fear some people have of these insects is most unreasonable and absurd. In tropical countries the bites of some are dangerous, but not nearly so much so as is supposed. Our own spiders are harmless enough. I never destroy the webs they make in my garden, the circular nets which they stretch from one branch to another, which are considered by experts to show a perfection of weaving, whilst those webs which are woven in odd corners of our dwellings reveal an intelligence in their arrangement which is perfectly marvellous. ”

“ Few people like spiders. No doubt these insects must have their merits and their uses, since none of God’s creatures are made in vain; all living things are endowed with instincts more or less admirable; but the spider’s plotting, creeping ways, and a sort of wicked expression about him, lead one to dislike him as a near neighbour. In a battle between a spider and a fly, one always sides with the fly, and yet of the two, the last is certainly the most troublesome insect to man. But the fly is frank and free in all his doings; he seeks his food openly, and he pursues his pastimes openly ”

“ The red spider is very tenacious of life, and hard to get rid of when he is allowed time to become well established. The best weapon to use against him, where it can be done, is clear cold water with as much force as possible against the under side of the foliage. ”