Tiny creature, generally less than an eighth of an inch (but Giant Red Velvet Mites, which live in sandy deserts, are up half an inch).  They are brilliant red with a velvety appearance and have eight legs.

They hang out in soil litter pretty much worldwide.  They are microscopic monsters.  Adults are tiny predators, eating small insects and their eggs.  The pictured fellow was hanging out on a decaying log containing a carpenter ant nest, so I'm guessing he had a taste for ants.  The larvae, on the other hand, are vampires, attaching themselves to insects, and sometimes spiders, and sucking their blood while getting a free ride.

There are about 300 species of Red Velvet Mite, and identification depends on detailed examination of mouthparts and other details.  The group is poorly known and poorly studied.  While red velvet mites are harmless to humans, they have tinier relatives that annoy us, including  the clover mites and spider mites that attack houseplants and garden plants, red mites which suck blood from chickens and other birds and mammals, and the notorious chiggers that bite humans and cause no end of itching.  I would not be surprised if there are chiggers in Wildwood, but the closest that I've met them is in Missouri.

As you might guess from the eight legs, mites are not insects, but  cousins of ticks and spiders.