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Showing posts from September, 2012

Types of Mites

follicle mite Mites live on plants, in the soil, in our homes, and sometimes even on us! Mites are among most abundant and diverse animal groups on earth.  Mites occur literally everywhere; in our homes, on our garden plants, in the soil at our feet, and some even live on us -- so it is indeed a good thing that most are so small that they are barely visible! A "typical" mite is about the size of a grain of salt but some, such as ticks (yes, ticks are a type of mite), can be as large as your fingernail while others like the demodex follicle mite (left) are small enough to live inside a normal hair follicle, with room to spare. brown recluse spider Mites are related to spiders but they are much more abundant and diverse than their arachnid cousins. While all spiders are predators (i.e. they feed on live prey) mites exhibit a range of lifestyles from the small plant feeding spider mites to tiny ectoparasitic scabies mites and to the relatively lar