An easy way to check your own tree or shrub for infestation is to shake a small branch, collecting what falls off on a sheet of white paper, then shake off the powder. With a magnifying glass, you should be able to see the mites that will be left on the paper. Red spider mites often attack and cause damage to alfalfa, soybeans, corn, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and most flowering plants, evergreens and shade trees. Usually they do the greatest damage to vegetables, flowering plants and evergreens. Mites damage plants by sucking the plant juices from the leaves.
Heavy infestations cause a lightening or yellowing of the leaves of infested plants.
In woody plants, defoliation follows the characteristic yellowing or fading, whereas herbaceous plants soon wilt and die. Adult mites hibernate during the winter and begin laying eggs in the warm weather of spring and summer. Eggs are laid on the leaves of plants and hatch in three to five days. The young mites, quite similiar to the adults in appearance, require about ten days in hot, dry weather to mature. The webs afford protection from wind and rain to the eggs and young spider mites.