Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: spider mites? , 1 by sunnyg

sunnyg wrote:
I’ve found these in several areas of the garden, and my first thought was spider mites. A couple of the plants that I’ve found them on are clearly suffering from something, but the majority of the plants look healthy at this point, including the undersides of the leaves. I do not have any experience with insect IDs, and while some of the info and images I found online still make me think they are red spider mites, there are some things that do not totally match.

These critters are small, but there is definitely no need to use a magnifying glass to see them as some sites suggest with spider mites. They are not on the undersides of leaves, but actively running all over. There are at most 2-3 bugs per plant. These are quite red although some appear to have a little black on them too, and they leave a red mark if smashed. There are some fine cobwebs on a few of the plants I’ve found them on, but when I started to hose off the webbing on one plant I only succeeded in disturbing a spider. I don’t use insecticides, and the garden is full of spiders and spiderwebs right now, so I can’t tell what’s what in terms of webbing. There do seem to be more of these bugs as time goes by, and I think I better determine whether they are/will harm my plants. Thank you in advance for any insight.

Here is one on a foxglove leaf: