Both evergreen and deciduous plants may be attacked. Spider mites are not insects but are more closely related to ticks and spiders. Their common name is derived from their ability to produce silk, which most species spin on host plants. Mites are tiny about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. They can also be very prolific, which is why infestations often go unnoticed until plants exhibit significant damage.
Immature stages resemble the adults except in size.
An adult female may live for several weeks and lay many dozens of eggs during her lifetime. Under optimum conditions, spider mites can complete their development from egg to adult in less than one week, so there may be many overlapping generations in a single season. Therefore, populations can increase rapidly and cause extensive plant damage in a very short time. Spider mites have needle-like mouthparts and feed by piercing the leaves of host plants and sucking out the fluids from individual plant cells. This causes the leaves to have a stippled or flecked appearance, with pale dots where the cellular contents have been removed.