Mite Identification - Good or Bad?

Hi guys - I’ve been around quietly reading, and I finally have a possible issue that I could use the vast amount of knowledge from the members here.

Yesterday after a very trying week and a week of plant neglect due to family issues (My father passed), I opened the 2x4 to find that one of the plants had a bunch of white spots on the build-a-flower topdress. After putting it under the microscope, I found what I think are some type of mite (photos attached). I do not see any on the plants anywhere, not yet at least.




Here is a little background - I am attempting growing in organic living soil; I started with Coast of Maine Stonington blend in 7-gallon pots (going to up pot to 15 before flip) and have been topdressing with BAS craft blend and using boogie brew teas. I know I was pushing the container size, so I decided to toss a little BAS build a flower a week or so ago to ensure the soil microbiology was strong. Yesterday the pot was dryer than it should have been, and I noticed the spots on the compost top dress. The plants are vegging under a Mars Hydro SP3000, 18 on. Avarage temp of 72.8, humidity of 62, and VPD of 1.16 (data attatched)

From the research that I have been able to do, they look like soil mites, but I am not positive and not sure what to do about them. I dont want to destroy them if there beneficial and i dont want to kill microbiology by getting rid of them if not. I actually just got an IPM kit, including Em5, The Amazing Doctor Zymes, and Tweetmint. I also have AzaMax

I expected some hiccups and am more than happy to learn from them, but if I can avoid
throwing a month-plus away, it would be amazing!

Guys I am not looking for a spoon here (although it would be great… Lol), am willing to put in the time, i just want to fix the issue (if it is one) before its too late.

Any help or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!!

Looks like Stratiolaelaps scimitus (Hypoaspis miles), a predatory mite

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Thank you!

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Beneficial mite

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Sure, but it makes me wonder what they are eating. They might all starve to death, but if they don’t, there is something there for them as food.

Like the other guys said. Beneficials, i always had them in my soil.

I did have fungus gnats; they came with the soil, weren’t bothering anything, and stayed under control, so I let them go. I did purchase the IPM kit to ensure that they did get too bad. Hopefully, thats all they are eating.

Thank you, everyone! This gives me a little piece of mind.

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They’re either hypoapsis miles (or similar) or echinops (probably robinii or… the other one, cant remember right now). The fast moving ones are bennies, if you have to watch them for several seconds to be able to tell if they’re moving then they’re not. Hope they aren’t bulb mites

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Thank you, I appreciate you taking the time! I will research all of those; I am interested in identifying them; they move fast and have stayed in the soil, so there have been no noticeable issues so far.