Mouthparts are of the piercing-sucking type. All stages live on the undersides of leaves where they probe directly into the plant cells and remove the liquid contents. A very fine silk webbing can often be found on the underside of leaves heavily infested with mites. In soybeans, damage first appears as yellow speckling around the leaf veins at the base of the leaf. As damage progresses, the yellowing moves toward the leaf tip and leaves take on a bronzed color on the upper surface.
Leaves eventually turn brown and prematurely drop from the plant.
Mites overwinter as adults in Michigan in non-crop areas around fields. A typical mite infestation starts at field edges bordering these habitats. The infestation will generally spread downwind as the mites migrate. Adult mites climb to the top of heavily infested plants and are blown to neighboring plants. Typically, mites will be found many rows beyond any visible damage.