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pests Is this a predatory mite or a pest mite?

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Not sure what kind of mite it is, but I'm driving myself crazy trying to get rid of them. They seem to stay at the base of my pepper plants. Any ideas?
 
I have found both predatory and pest mites on my plants, and one of the noticeable differences is that the predatory mites are much more solitary and tend to constantly run all over the plants looking for food, while the pest mites are often massed in one area on a plant, and they don't run around nearly as much or as quickly as the predatory mites. If your mites are gathering at the base of the plants, I would suspect that they are pests. 
 
Well if they are solitary and fast, and you are not seeing them on the leaves at all, then they don't really sound like parasitic pest mites to me. Maybe the mites are feeding on something else that is infesting the soil. I'm no expert on mites though; I'm just guessing based on the behavior of mites I have observed on my plants. If you have a good magnifier, like a jeweler's loupe, try to get a good look at one. The predatory mites often have forward-facing mouth parts, while the pest mites usually have more downward facing mouth parts. Also, maybe try to figure out what they are feeding on. Then you will know if they are predators or parasites.
 
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