How to Spot Spider Mites in a Lawn

Spider mites are extremely small insects that look a lot like spiders. Most home owners miss seeing spider mites (due to their size) until there's an extremely large infestation. Spider mites like eating the undersides of leaves and sucking out the juice of the plant. In lawns, spider mites carry the name clover mites.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Remember that spider mites are very small. Female spider mites are the size of a ballpoint pen tip. Male spider mites are even smaller.

2. Check the underside of the plants surrounding your lawn for tight webs. If there's a large infestation, the spider mites may end up spinning webs around the plant.

3. Note speckled appearances in plants around your grass. Since spider mites are so small, they only leave tiny dots of yellow on leaves. However, they can make leaves drop or even destroy the plants. In lawns, clover mites tend to leave silver streaks in your grass strands. With large infestations, patches of grass will have a yellow, dead appearance.

4. Look for spider mites inside your house. Once it becomes warm, they will spread to your indoor plants. While they don't bite or spread disease, they do make red marks when killed that are hard to clean up after. And they'll kill your indoor plants.

5. Consider using more natural techniques to get rid of spider mites, since chemical techniques also kill the insects that eat spider mites.