r/whatsthisbug • u/Tigerlily7877 • 7h ago
ID Request Help Identifying Mites (?)
Hi!! I don’t use Reddit a ton and I literally never post so I’m sorry if my post is a mess or something 😭
Location: Maryland, not in or that close to the mountains if that matters
My dog came in with these on his stomach (not on his stomach directly but in the long fur that he has there). We’ve had cats come in with these before but just never identified them since preventatives seemed to get rid of them. They don’t travel from pet to pet, they really just stick to the original one that they hitched a ride on and they don’t actually ever seem to bother the animal they’re on either. The ones that tend to get them like to sit in ivy or bushes sometimes if that helps! They move extremely slowly even when on the fur, you can barely tell that they’re moving usually unless you look closely.
From what I saw, I think they’re some kind of mite but I could be wrong! I just know they’re definitely not fleas or ticks. I couldn’t find any mites that affect pets matching the description nor really any other mites either which is why I’m here. This makes me wonder if they aren’t mites, they just really look like mites 😭
I would just take one of them to a vet to identify them but like I said, preventatives work on them as far as I can tell so this is really just my own curiosity.
I used an ID card and a dime for size (tried to get a quarter since non-Americans might know the size of one better but I couldn’t find one, sorry!!)
Sorry that the pictures aren’t extremely clear as well, they’re super small so it’s hard to get a good one.
I understand if no one can really find a good idea of what they are because of the pictures but there’s no harm in trying!
1
u/Acceptable_Trip4650 ⭐Bzzzzz!⭐ 5h ago
These look like one of the more rough-and-ready mites in order Oribatida aka beetle mites. It is hard to say exactly which ones from these images.
They are harmless to people and pets. They just trundle around eating random plant detritus on the ground and in the soil.
https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/91228/bgpage