Small white mites on cacti?

[LawyerNinja]

What are these? https://imgur.com/gallery/bIfOfjY

Many of them, do not necessarily appear to be harming anything but the amount of them is alarming.

[Steve Johnson]

What are these? https://imgur.com/gallery/bIfOfjY

Many of them, do not necessarily appear to be harming anything but the amount of them is alarming.

Ooh, video -- nice! Not sure if they're mites, but if they are, they're moving too fast to be cactus pests.

[LawyerNinja]

What are these? https://imgur.com/gallery/bIfOfjY

Many of them, do not necessarily appear to be harming anything but the amount of them is alarming.

Ooh, video -- nice! Not sure if they're mites, but if they are, they're moving too fast to be cactus pests.

That is what I am thinking. There are so many of them and they only appear to come out at night when its cooler.

[Steve Johnson]

That is what I am thinking. There are so many of them and they only appear to come out at night when its cooler.

Being terminally curious, I decided to look up "white mites" on DuckDuckGo, and here's what I found:

https://succulentcity.com/white-mites/

https://www.solutionsstores.com/how-to- ... hite-mites

These websites should help you know what to look for, and what remedial action you may need to take. Proper identification of the mites you're dealing with is required -- I'm not a mite expert by any means, so unfortunately I can't give you any guidance here.

[keith]

"Speaking of the little babies, baby mealybugs are called “crawlers”. They are called that because these guys move around looking for a safe space to attach to and feed."

? maybe IDK it would be a bad infestation if they are baby mealybugs bugs. I seem to remember having something like this long ago when I had pest problems. When I used to buy Nursery bought cactus from non specialized nurseries way long ago .

[Steve Johnson]

"Speaking of the little babies, baby mealybugs are called “crawlers”. They are called that because these guys move around looking for a safe space to attach to and feed."

? maybe IDK it would be a bad infestation if they are baby mealybugs bugs. I seem to remember having something like this long ago when I had pest problems. When I used to buy Nursery bought cactus from non specialized nurseries way long ago .

I forgot about that possibility.

@LawyerNinja -- to cover your bases, you may want to give your cacti an Imidacloprid soil soak in case you're dealing with mealybug crawlers. I posted a detailed presentation on mealies, armored scale, and pest mites which you'll find here:

http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtop ... 24&t=42129

When you read Part 4 (remedies) and go to "Long-term solution for all types of scale insect", you'll see the "how to" on doing soil soaks. By the way -- after years of using the Bayer Advanced (now BioAdvanced) 3-in-1, I ditched it in favor of Bonide Annual Tree & Shrub Insect Control concentrate when I gave my collection a preventative soil soak last month. There's a trick to diluting the Bonide, so I'm posting an additional "how to" update on that in my presentation thread. Since your cacti have plenty of growing season left, now would be a good time for the soil soaks if you're so inclined.

[LawyerNinja]

I'm way ahead of you. I read that write up last year and have been soil soaking everything 3 or so months in the beginning of growing season. I'll be giving all non flowering cacti a soak this weekend.