How do I eradicate clover mites? - Ask Extension
I live in Montgomery County. Over the past 3 years, our south-west facing patio has become infested with red clover mites. The patio is bordered by la...
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How do I eradicate clover mites? #901660
Asked May 15, 2025, 3:06 PM EDT
I live in Montgomery County. Over the past 3 years, our south-west facing patio has become infested with red clover mites. The patio is bordered by lawn on one side and an exterior wall of our house on the other. I have learned clover mites multiply exponentially, overwintering in winter and lying dormant in the hottest part of the summer. Otherwise they are all over my patio and entering the house. How do I kill them continuously so they don't continue to lay eggs and increase in number? Diatomaceous earth is pretty ineffective considering it's difficult to apply it in a way that the bugs don't walk around it. It also has to be reapplied after every rain, and I have a large perimeter of grass/patio/house to cover. What do you suggest?
Montgomery County Maryland
Expert Response
Clover mites have a dark purplish-brown body and reddish or yellowish legs. They can reach outbreak population levels occasionally in new lawns or mature lawns that have declined and which were then fertilized heavily. They usually diminish on their own due to changing environmental conditions. If they enter a home, sealing gaps and cracks can help to keep them out. No treatment of the grass itself is needed or recommended.
Different mites have all-red bodies and are often seen wandering around pavement, mulch, soil, and other surfaces. These tend to be velvet mites or "concrete mites" and they prey on other invertebrates and/or consume pollen residue, the latter of which we've had a lot of recently due to a deficit of rain allowing shed pollen residues to build up on plants and other surfaces. Although the linked article suggests that a pyrethroid-class insecticide can be used to treat the area where they become a nuisance, be aware that pyrethroid insecticides are indiscriminate and harm or kill any insect that comes into contact with its residues, including beneficials and pollinators (ladybugs, fireflies, bees, etc.). Therefore, we do not recommend their use if it can be avoided. Pyrethrum is the naturally-derived or organic equivalent to that chemical group whose residues don't last quite as long, so it poses a lower risk to other insects in that regard, but it still is broad-spectrum and generally not recommended.
Are insecticides used on the lawn with any regularity? (Probably not, given Montgomery County lawn pesticide laws, but we figured we'd ask anyway just in case.) If so, they might be killing off insects that prey on nuisance pests like these mites (and insecticides usually do not kill mites, since mites are not insects), which can contribute to mite population explosions.
Miri
Different mites have all-red bodies and are often seen wandering around pavement, mulch, soil, and other surfaces. These tend to be velvet mites or "concrete mites" and they prey on other invertebrates and/or consume pollen residue, the latter of which we've had a lot of recently due to a deficit of rain allowing shed pollen residues to build up on plants and other surfaces. Although the linked article suggests that a pyrethroid-class insecticide can be used to treat the area where they become a nuisance, be aware that pyrethroid insecticides are indiscriminate and harm or kill any insect that comes into contact with its residues, including beneficials and pollinators (ladybugs, fireflies, bees, etc.). Therefore, we do not recommend their use if it can be avoided. Pyrethrum is the naturally-derived or organic equivalent to that chemical group whose residues don't last quite as long, so it poses a lower risk to other insects in that regard, but it still is broad-spectrum and generally not recommended.
Are insecticides used on the lawn with any regularity? (Probably not, given Montgomery County lawn pesticide laws, but we figured we'd ask anyway just in case.) If so, they might be killing off insects that prey on nuisance pests like these mites (and insecticides usually do not kill mites, since mites are not insects), which can contribute to mite population explosions.
Miri
