The fact that the adult and egg-laying harvest mites live well hidden in the topsoil makes them practically impossible to eradicate with conventional insecticides. If you want to spray your garden with pesticides, this should be done at the time the larvae begin to appear, or later. Prevention of bites. Tight shoes and clothes are […]
Life cycle
In Denmark, there is one generation of harvest mites a year. The mites overwinter in the nymphal stage and evolve into adults in the early summer. The adult mites lay eggs in the ground. The larvae hatch in late July – early August. The active larvae are six-legged. They are 0.2-0.3 mm long, but because […]
The harvest mite
The harvest mite, Neotrombicula autumnalis, is a species of mite of the family Trombiculidae. The larvae of this family live parasitically while the other developmental stages are free-living predators that attack and suck out small insects and other mites. The harvest mite larva is a parasite of warm-blooded animals: rats, mice and birds. The larval […]