I’m tiny but I’m mighty

Quite a sight to see

A splash of vibrant red

Down amongst the leaves.

What on earth am I?

I’m a Red Velvet Mite.

Red Velvet Mites are lovely. I know there are plenty of people who don’t love any creature with more than four legs and like the ones with eight legs even less so, but look at this fluffy little fellow! Adorable. For a mite. And big for a mite, really. Mites tend to be super tiny, only a millimetre or even less! These ones are the giants of the mite world and can get up to around a centimetre. I find if I spend any period of time ferreting around in the garden, either getting around to doing the gardening itself or looking for other critters such as my favourites, jumping spiders, I will often see a flash of red and it’ll be one of these mites scurrying around.

Now, when I say red velvet mite, I’m throwing that term around as a huge general catch all. There’s lots of species of these arachnids (eight legs as opposed to insects that have only six) although they all are red and velvety in appearance. The nymphs and adults are predators and will feed on tiny invertebrates and the eggs of insects living in the soil and amongst the leaf litter. The earlier instars are external parasites and you might be lucky enough to see them attached to another creature. Not so lucky for the other critter, although usually just an inconvenience.

Like other brightly coloured animals, the Red Velvet Mite is rarely eaten by others as they’re constantly flashing that ‘I taste bad, I’m toxic’ flag with their vibrant colouration. Makes me wonder what signals I’m sending out with my bright red, totally *ahem* natural hair?