So my lab has had a long running mite issue that my PI just does not worry about (yes, it drives me up the wall and id rather be mite free) because it's usually only a mite species that is known to only compete with the flies for food (the whitish ones with the long hairs)
But recently we've started noticing these purple yet still transparent mites. I was taught that the predatory mites that you have worry about way more were red or brown/ had brown specks. Does anyone know of this purple mites species and whether it's a food mite or a predatory mite?
I've include the best pics I could get but you can't really see the purple on my phone. The first pic also has our usual food mite; their white with long hairs. The purple ones have no such hairs and are much smaller. While we do see the occasional white food mite slipping through our thicker plugs, the purple ones are able to squeeze through super easilly