Who remembers those tiny red bugs you used to see in the garden as a kid?

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Hollyhop_Drive@reddit

Red mites! Yeah they were always all over the stone wall round the church in the summer. Used to love watching them. Can still feel the rough sun warmed stone under my hands when I think about them.

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GasQuirky3938@reddit

I remember ladybirds from my childhood. We had a literal plague of them in the summer of 1976.

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Azuras-Becky@reddit

I went for years thinking ladybirds had gone extinct and nobody told me, then towards the end of last summer the back of the house was *covered* in them.

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blarfblarf@reddit

Happens every year for me (at my current house). Thousands of them swarming outside, have to keep all doors and windows closed.

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Still-Tap-9628@reddit

Weirdly enough, I saw one yesterday for the first time in years!

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ReluctantZebraLife@reddit

I had some on my garden wall last year in Lincolnshire UK. I loved seeing them again!

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trimble24@reddit

Believe me, they’re still out there. Saw a few today

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alicatpow@reddit

We used to call them bloodsuckers because we believed the reason they were red was because they would bite you and fill up with your blood 😅

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Special_Yellow_6348@reddit

They where called money spiders when I was growing up

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alicatpow@reddit

That's interesting, that's what we called those tiny black spiders that you occasionally see because they bungee down from above you on a little web 😅

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HyperAndStick@reddit

You must've had different blood suckers because ours were like long red thin ant-like things with wings. Not seen any of them for years either.

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faithlessone423@reddit

Is this not true?? I was told it too. 😅😅

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Very rarely see them anymore, but then I don't spend as much time on the ground outside as I did as a child. Never really saw them on the garden, so much as on concrete/pavement etc.. ie the school playground.

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Namerakable@reddit

They're all over my recycling bin, for some reason.

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cadburyshero@reddit

I actually saw some the other day! Don’t think I’d seen them in about 15 years.

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Quinn_XXVII@reddit

They used to get called money spiders But they’re actually mites (\_\_\_Red Velvet Mites\_\_\_*Bryobia praetiosa)* **Red Velvet Mites** are larger, beneficial predators that live in soil and typically only appear outdoors, often after rain I see them all the time, living in the gaps of stone walls Healthy eco system

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SpaceChickenBoy@reddit

Nah, money spiders are the tiny, round, *black/brown* spiders. Not the red mites.

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Quinn_XXVII@reddit

Yeah you’re right But my entire childhood in the 80’s, the red ones were called money spiders

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Jumpy-Jello-@reddit

Oh yeah, money spiders!

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termeownator@reddit

What, like chiggers? Here in the States they're so small they practically disappear. You gotta really try and focus in order to see em. They're supposed to make you itch if you get em on your skin, and I always feel kinda uneasy naming them, like I'm reciting the beginning line of some racist rhyme that was prevalent in these parts back in my Daddy and Granddady's days.

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AdEmbarrassed3066@reddit

Red spider mite.

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FishermanAccurate425@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/9cgyfkvdrb4h1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a4ad67097456b832b9b7dc8365a1f1bb59e9f87d No way coz I saw a big one earlier and thought I never seen a spider like that is it the same ?

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No_External_417@reddit

Called them blood suckers as kids

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xanthophore@reddit

This is a [red velvet mite](https://www.naturespot.org/species/trombidiidae-sp)!

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bobsnervous@reddit

Ive never seen one as big as this before. Ive never seen one bigger than like half a millimeter or something. Thats crazy

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nightfire_83@reddit

Fuck knows what that is, but that's not one. These things are tiny. Like mm tiny

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AdEmbarrassed3066@reddit

They are teeny tiny. About half a mm at most.

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FishermanAccurate425@reddit

I know stilll see them on brick walls and stuff they’re still around just wonder what this one was

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AdEmbarrassed3066@reddit

How big is the bug in the picture?

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FishermanAccurate425@reddit

Like a 5p

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AdEmbarrassed3066@reddit

Probably a red velvet mite then. Don't know much about them.

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Imaginary-While7726@reddit

Teeny tiny. Like the ball at the end of a ball point pen

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Psychological_Salt93@reddit

That looks like a spider carrying a strawberry!

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pixel-powder@reddit (OP)

Wooow that does look like a giant version of what I'm talking about!

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dazedan_confused@reddit

Cheers pal, why are we doing Aussie accents though?

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fiendofecology@reddit

Shepherd’s Delight.

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Ok_Chipmunk_7066@reddit

Yes they are still a thing, as far as I can tell as populous as they ever were. But unless you actively spend time on hands and knees in warm weather outdoors (which you simply stop doing when you're not a kid) you won't ever see them.

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KimonoCathy@reddit

I think my time spent on hands and knees in a summer garden has increased tenfold since I became responsible for maintaining my own property!

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oreosaredelicious@reddit

I weirdly saw loads on my windowsills yesterday when painting the outside of my house

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math577@reddit

You underestimate my wife's love of forcing me to do unpaid garden labour.

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Forgetful8nine@reddit

Injure yourself doing it. Make sure it results in a visit to A&E. Really make a point and do it a second time. Bonus points if the injury results in surgery. Just off the top of my head, and definitely not speaking from experience, you could try chopping a finger off with a hedge trimmer. Then maybe a year or so later, try a dodgy mulching blade on a strimmer and have it fly off and take a chunk out of your shin. I am now banned from serious garden work!

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math577@reddit

I've managed to do this with some cooking tasks after I partially severed a fingertip with a breadknife

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Ok_Chipmunk_7066@reddit

I got married on 16th May, I've pretty much not stopped gardening since!

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Acceptable-Sentence@reddit

Bad luck, you should still be in the non stop shagging phase

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Junior_Tradition7958@reddit

Actively spending time on your hands and knees.

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Ok_Chipmunk_7066@reddit

That's night time. I'm old and exhausted.

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return_of_the_badger@reddit

Exactly this, randomly had the same thought myself a few months ago and decided to just sit on the ground for a while and sort of poke around. Sure enough there are plenty of bugs there, just like there used to be! Us grown ups are just too busy grown upping to stop and look

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Ok_Chipmunk_7066@reddit

I've been gardening none stop last two weeks and yeah, just the shear amount of bugs/insects that are just there. Endless amounts of worms too.

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KimonoCathy@reddit

Spider mites? Yes, used to love watching them in the 70s and 80s, haven’t seen any for decades. Same garden, by the way, and no substantial changes to it.

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curetrick@reddit

Yeah my young kid brought a stone in the other day to show me one that was crawling all over it. Kids look at the world in finer detail than adults do so yeah it’s because you are doing bigger grown-up stuff now that happens far away from the floor.

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mattcannon2@reddit

They're still there, you're just not as close to the ground as much anymore.

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hidingbehindyoursofa@reddit

We used to call them blood ants

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sulphurwind@reddit

I’ve fingered them all to extinction that’s what

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Jester7s@reddit

I was doing some DIY in the garden today and saw loads of them!

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AmusedPencil274@reddit

I have LOADS of them in my Garden!!

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banananey@reddit

Saw one today, very nostalgic!

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DeapVally@reddit

Bloody loads of them in rural Derbyshire.

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Misskprior@reddit

I saw some on my water butt and had flashbacks to being a kid, they are still around!

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purrcthrowa@reddit

Red spider mites? I saw one yesterday crawl across my computer screen, as it happens.

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grc007@reddit

There’s one fewer in the world. Watched an ant walking by with one in its mandibles this morning.

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CharieRarie@reddit

I know exactly what you mean! We called them money spiders cos if you saw them you’d supposedly find some money. I googled money spiders though and they look totally different, so who knows what they are really called!

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yearsofpractice@reddit

They’re still there - my kids were pointing and shouting about some today!

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Natural_Peak_5587@reddit

Clover mites? We still get them all over concrete

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Lopsided_Snower@reddit

they were withdrawn in 2006, part of cuts made by the NST

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idontlikemondays321@reddit

National Spiders Trust?

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pixel-powder@reddit (OP)

🤣

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PotentialPigFucker@reddit

Used to squash em

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Accurate_Dot542@reddit

I saw some on the wall out the front of my house last year! First time I'd seen them in years.

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drivingagermanwhip@reddit

there's tons you just don't spend so much time bored staring at the walls of the playground

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nightfire_83@reddit

Chigger mites. Saw some today at the bath and west show

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connectfourvsrisk@reddit

I have them on the front garden wall. Fascinating little things. Arachnids but not spiders.

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bloodandglory31@reddit

Only ever see them at my parents house in the midlands 🤷‍♂️ and on wooden window ledges, not stone or uPVC.

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Fabulous-Wolf-4401@reddit

Money spiders!

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bonshui@reddit

We call them money spiders. Saw some in the park last week.

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Fun_Product_7349@reddit

Money spiders

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Helpful_Elderberry91@reddit

Saw them last weekend as it happens, still alive and thriving

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rictay44@reddit

Loads on our patio. The pigeons seem content to spend hours pecking them up.

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chucky6661@reddit

They were on my windowsill earlier

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Spiritual_Tie3348@reddit

I get them on my window ledge still but don't see the numbers that I used to in the 80's.

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whyy_i_eyes_ya@reddit

Weirdly hadn’t seen any for ages but kid pointed one out in a castle wall in wales last week. Made me think ‘bloody hell, blast from the past’. Maybe as adults we just spend less time looking at walls and shit.

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PKblaze@reddit

Mites?

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phjils@reddit

I have a load of them all over my garage door at the moment.

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Rhinoceraptor37@reddit

I saw one at the tram stop yesterday.

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pm_me_your_amphibian@reddit

I’ve seen loads of them this year!

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DanielleBun@reddit

I have a bunch on my windowsills at the moment

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UnderstandingLow5979@reddit

I remember seeing them as a child (I grew up in the Midlands). I moved to London in 2007 and lived there until 2020. I don't remember seeing any in London but when I moved back to my hometown I started seeing them again. Maybe they just live in certain parts of the UK but not all over? We called them "red spiders" when I was a child 🙂

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sniffing_dog@reddit

Yeah they like living on my patio.

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monkey-madness-7@reddit

Go sit on the ground and have a good snoot around like you used to do when you were a kid and you'll soon see them again

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pixel-powder@reddit (OP)

I think I need to!

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tcpukl@reddit

Normally seen swarming front garden walls on hot summer days.

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LilacScentedStoat@reddit

They wee on my bin in the sun on Tuesday. When I was a kid, used to think that they're sun Burnt Ants because they only ever came out when it was really sunny.. I was a dumb kid..

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pixel-powder@reddit (OP)

🤣🤣

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ash894@reddit

I’ve got loads in my garden this year but haven’t seen them for years before now

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Soggy_Detective_4737@reddit

I saw a couple this week when bug hunting with my grandson. I can recall sitting on the pavement, not much older than he is now, and it seemed like there were hundreds of them.

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UnderstandingLow3162@reddit

Weren't they 'red ants'?? People used to say they'd bite you, I'm not sure. But now you mention it I don't think I've seen one in 30yrs.

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-Rhymenocerous-@reddit

I was mowing my sisters in laws garden today and when I was assembling her new mower I see some crawling over the cardboard. Brought back some memories :)

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SwingyWingyShoes@reddit

Those an aphids we always saw together.

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Imaginary-While7726@reddit

Yes! With child logic, we always said they were so small that if you drew circles round them the ink would be high enough that it would stop them getting out

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rFAXbc@reddit

Yes! I have some on the wall in my garden. There were more earlier but I guess they've gone to bed. https://preview.redd.it/9new3qzptb4h1.jpeg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80f5578d916f82f295056d8700de2e1c6d779105

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abyssal-isopod86@reddit

Red spider mites is what they were.

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Phantom_Crush@reddit

I see them running around when the weather is nice on my front stairs. Only every notice them on bricks or concrete

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leahcar83@reddit

Yes, I saw loads of them last week crawling around my garden path.

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Novel-Case6821@reddit

Are they not clover mites rather than spider mites?

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not2daythankyou@reddit

Seen some last weekend in my garden

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Impossible_Delay1023@reddit

I get them on the front of the house when the temp is up, just leave them to it as I missed them little fuckers from my childhood

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Red-Wimp@reddit

Literally loads of them on my table in the garden

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Historical_Project86@reddit

Yes I saw some at the weekend. They're easier to see on concrete, and where I grew up we all had concrete walls at the front of our house, so we would see them crawling around in summer.

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Great-Activity-5420@reddit

They're constantly by my front door no clue their real name.

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MummyButtons@reddit

So random as I saw one yesterday in my garden, and thought to myself I haven’t seen one of those since I was a kid! I thought they weren’t a thing anymore too!

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pereuse@reddit

Bloodsuckers used to be everywhere

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Conscious-Topic-7208@reddit

Blood suckers we called them

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lkap28@reddit

We called them blood spiders - saw loads while weeding yesterday, thought I’d myself several times when I saw the ‘blood’ on my hands

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rdazza@reddit

I was pulling out some weeds today and weirdly saw 2

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GreenCup3426@reddit

I saw one on my window frame just the other day!

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DiscoDoberman@reddit

Spider mites. Actually I haven't see any either, used to get them on my window sills but not anymore.

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split-tennisball@reddit

Saw some yesterday

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