Stone mite

Stone mites were arthropods that clung to spaceships and buildings, consuming hulls and metal plating with a combination of strong, wire-cutting jaws and acidic saliva. They typically fed on silicates and complex metals, but were also capable of stripping a humanoid to the bone in mere minutes. Three individual stone mites could merge to form a symbiotic ternary that featured a hard shell, which strengthened from electrolytic reactions. As a defense, they could weld themselves to a metallic surface and deliver electric shocks through their feeler tails.

Stone mites could be found across the galaxy, including on Tatooine, the Southern Underground of Coruscant, Malastare, Naboo, Havricus, Sermeria, Tynna, Nar Bo Sholla, and Deylerax.

On Ord Tiddell, thousands of stone mites infested its capital, Lagabee, with four million planetary residents requesting evacuation. In 19.9 BBY, a freighter called the Spinner crashed near Westport and released an infestation at Kishi; as a result, Armand Isard ordered their release on Orleon.

There were only a few known manners of eliminating these genetically engineered pests, one of them being oxidizer foam. When applied, the substance would actually rust the mites to death. Additionally, Jedi healers could use morichro against them.

Reports from the Clone Wars indicated that these creatures were genetically engineered by Arkanian scientists. While the Arkanian government said that this was not true early in the early days of the Empire, Arkanian scientists were the only scientists to make any progress in destroying stone mites. In actuality, the escaped Arkanian mutant terrorist Zeta Magnus created the stone mites for the Separatists.

In 137 ABY, stone mites on Coruscant appeared to be deformed from the sabotage of Yuuzhan Vong terraforming.

Text and facts from the “Stone mite/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.