Predatory mite

How to recognise it

Under a lens: slightly larger, pear-shaped, shiny orange-red and noticeably faster-moving than the pest mite it hunts.

Mistaken for

Indistinguishable from red spider mite to the naked eye, so a gardener who sees red dots assumes the worst and sprays - killing the predator along with the pest.

What it eats

Red spider mite

How to attract it

Humidity and no sulphur or broad-spectrum sprays. Can be bought and released on tomatoes, cucumbers and beans.

Plants that help

Cucumber, Tomato, Strawberry, Sweet pepper

Lifecycle

Reproduces faster than its prey at 25-30 C, which is what lets it wipe out an infestation.

Months: May, June, July, August, September

The thing people get wrong

If you release these, you must stop spraying entirely - including soap, which kills them just as readily as it kills spider mite. Biological control and spray control are alternatives, not partners.