Soil mites!!! Which are good and bad?

Sooo about a month ago I made 3 raised beds on casters with about 100 gallons of my mix in each bed.... I used some outside soil, peat, vermiculite, wood shavings, perlite, coco coir, homemade worm castings with a ton of worm eggs and juveniles and a ton of different meals and rock dust's.

I had let the bins do a short cook then planted several different things as a quick cover crop. Which is now up about 2 inches. I plan on planting ganja in the beds in the new year, so the bins have had time to break down...

The wife had bought a bag of avocados several weeks ago. It usually happens that several had gone over ripe she was gonna toss them to the worm bins. I decided to cut in half, remove pit then place face down in the beds to feed the worms a little treat...

I then began to notice an ABUNDANCE of mites eating the rotten part of the avocado. nothing plant wise seems to be effected and have even planted a few sacrificial girls to see if anything happens, before I put what i want into the beds.

My questions are, what limit would be to many if they are good? Why isn't their more easily accessible work on soil mites to read (with pictures)? Are almost all soil mites harmless? Will they aid in the break down of the organic matter in the bins go faster and make stuff plant available?

Here are a few of the pics I just took this morning... Using a cell phone sorry and these are heavily populated on the avocados not anywhere else but their are random mites on and in the Soil (like a inch deep).

I had a worm farm and those things would just come and go every couple of months. I never saw them anywhere but the worm bin so I chalked them up as "normal".

Hopefully someone with more knowledge on the subject will be able to help.

The numerous brown ones are oribatid mites. They are composters so are pretty harmless, although they may be sign your soil is on the moist side.

The clear light colored ones I have never seen before, it is possible they are a larval instar of oribatid mites.

There are different types and colors. Some slow fat ones, and skinnier/ longer fast ones.... None are on the plant!!... Some are defiantly predators while others are decomposers, well thats my guess. And my soil mix isn't wet its not even that moist its more like the peat has a darker color then when dry.. if that makes any sense...

I almost need to get a microscope or something with 100x zoom to get a really good look...

Solution:

https://www.arbico-organics.com/pro...46VZZ0_6LFJyGSM876e8tlcen2VzLAg4aAtAjEALw_wcB

Hey everyone,
LizardMan, l’ve always believed a good soil moves and mine seems to move in cycles, over the season and input depending; i.e. temperature and top dresses. I never worry anymore because it always seems to balance out in the end.
If you have a pair of binoculars, try them for closeups on your phone.
Cheers,
40.

Selected Invertebrates of the Soil Food Web
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Read this.

A Mite is a Mite is a Mite? Not Quite!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoaspis_miles

So the general opinion is let them be and roll with it!! Any info on mites is greatly welcome it all helps.

There are also spring tails, and a black slender fast moving tear drop shape insect in the containers, and the ODD fungus gnat which i don't worry about due to nematodes in the soil all ready....

Im going for outdoors inside and i guess that means ill have to learn about other bugs then the top pest...

looks like a healthy population! a lot of the white mites are mold mites and are beneficial for breaking down organic matter.

If they are not hurting the plants, maybe let them go. I had tailed seeds get eaten in the soil, and saw fast moving red mites. Not sure if they were the problem. I added the nematodes, and although I saw one red mite while I was putting in sticky pads, the plants are not being attacked. I have nematodes in all my soil now. Fast red mites are supposed to be good. Another trick I want to employ is Rover beetles.

I often cycle outdoor rich garden soil through my worm bins just to increase diversity of the microbial populations, but I seem to also have introduced red velvet mites (those lovely bright red giant mites you always find here and there when digging around). I don't see them often in my no-till bed because I don't disturb the soil much, but I have seen them at planting time and know they're there living in the soil. I inadvertently introduced some sort of centipede too, because I've seen one twice so far. This concerned me due to the fact they can eat your worms, but I still have lots of worms thriving in there.

troutman said:

Read this.

A Mite is a Mite is a Mite? Not Quite!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoaspis_miles

Click to expand...

I got bunch with a load of worms. The little killer red mites are a fantastic addition to your soil, once a seedling is started. I suspect they may eat baby sprouts, so I will start in different soil next time. Red mites that move fast like ants are your friend.

Lizard; How did things work out? Outside - inside is fun and worthy. I did culture a rove beetle colony like that, which controlled pests beautifully. Flylow; did you get any rove beetles working for you? I have yet to find large numbers of them at my present location.
I've got a new bug running around on my plants. It is about double mite size, red-orange, six legs (I think), has a white tail with orange rings, moves very fast - too fast to view and video with the stereo scope therefore I'm assuming it is a predator rather than leaf sucker. Anyone seen such a thing?

I just saw one if these the other day on my amnesia haze. It was a small orange mite type bug moving very fast over the stems and onto a leaf. When i noticed it on 1 stem it would be gone and up and down another stem. I did have a few aphids on my under leaves but i still have no idea what that small orange one was. Fastest little thing ive ever seen.

When I first started having my baby sprouts get eaten, and I discovered the red mites, I got some nematodes. Actually I did them twice, before I figured out the mites came from my worms, and that they were friendly. I have never used rover beetles. If I get more worms, I will try to get them from the same place in PA that sold these (I ordered them through Redbud). Little red buggers get everywhere when I take a plant outside and set it on the porch rail, there will be red mites on the rail a day later. I never see them on the leafs, but maybe they are there. I am gonna recycle the soil today from the first plants I chopped, and do a root/soil after-grow inspection. I'll post it up somewhere.

Between them and purecrop1, and bottom watering (top of the soil is dry), bugs have not been an issue. I will just start the next sprouts in different soil, in case the mites were the issue.

Hey! I finished up the crop and then had to remove the beds, which was not the plan!! But during that cycle there was a beautiful cover crop that was grown and chopped which helped the diversity of critters.

I had a decent mite population for a while, it was after the cover crop had slowly dried back. I think the moisture had a lot to do with it. The rove beatles showed up but never many...

I added nematodes to help put the fungus gnats in there place and 2 different predator flies came which was interesting. Spring tails, worms, slender black beatles are some of the other things that popped up.

All in all everything slowly managed its self and by the end i slowly let the beds dry out which i think will make stuff go dormant... I also had no pest issue with the plants in the end..