Hiking Adventures in El Paso Can Acquaint You With Trombidiidae’s

It is pretty cool what hiking can lead you to discover and intrigue you to learn more about. My friend has been on so many hiking adventures on the Franklin Mountains.

On his recent hike at McKelligon Canyon, he came across a strange-looking creature. He shared short clips of this little red crab spider looking thing on his Facebook.

I embedded his Facebook post below so you can see it for yourself. If you were like me and had no clue what class to put this little dude in you will now.

This little creature is known as a red velvet mite called Trombidiidae. These little red rain bugs can be found all around the world from Canada to Africa and even El Paso.

The Trombidiidae's classification is part of the Arachnids. These little cute crawlers as adults live beneath the ground until the rainy season begins. When it rains here in El Paso the rain bugs surface in McKelligon Canyon in large numbers.

We're almost to the end of July which normally is when we start to see more rainy days. That means when it pours in El Paso, the Trombidiidae's will come out to play. After all, Trombidiidaes are known as rain bugs. It is only during the winter they hibernate and are active during the day in the sunshine.

When the moon begins to shine at night is when the Trombidiidaes hide under the soil. The next time you're hiking be sure to keep an eye out for these little red crawlers.