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Extension Entomology

Thrips

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Article author: Kerry Siders
Most recently reviewed by: Suhas Vyavhare & Pat Porter (2020)

Common Name(s): Thrips

Description

Thrips are slender, cigar-shaped, straw-colored insects about 1/15-inch-long as an adult. They have piercing and sucking, cone-shaped mouthparts. Adults have narrow wings fringed with hairs and can drift long distances in the wind. Due to their small size, thrips are often difficult to see.

Habitat & Hosts

Onion thrips have an extremely wide host range. They feed and can reproduce on several cultivated crops including onion, cotton, beans, fruits, vegetables, and practically all small grains. Citrus thrips feed on leaves and fruit of most all species of citrus tree plants. Greenhouse thrips feed on a wide range of horticulture plants. Gladiolus thrips feed on gladiolus and other species of flowers. Western flower thrips feed on a wide variety of plants including chrysanthemums, gloxinia, impatiens, tomato, cotton, vegetables, and grasses. Some plants species, varieties and cultivars are more attractive to the thrips than others.

Life Cycle

In the thrips life cycle, egg-to-adult development takes about 16 days. Eggs inserted into the plant tissue by the female’s sharp egg-laying tube (ovipositor) hatch in about 6 days. Two larval stages require about 6 days for completion; then, the prepupal and pupal stages take an additional 4 days and generally occur in the soil. The average life span of a mated female is about 35 days, and each female can produce fifty or more eggs. Thrips can reproduce without mating. Mated females produce both males and females; unmated females produce only males.

Management

If you live in the State of Texas, contact your local county agent or entomologist for management information. If you live outside of Texas, contact your local extension for management options.

Thrips management needs and strategies vary across commodities. Avoid planting cotton during cool conditions so that young plants will not be affected when plants are most susceptible to thrips damage. Not planting cotton near small grains and onions or adjusting planting date helps alleviate thrips migration into the field. Chemical control is an effective way of managing thrips. Chemical control options include insecticide application (foliar/in-furrow) and/or seed treatments.

Related Publications

http://lubbock.tamu.edu/files/2017/05/Thrips_ENTO-069.pdf

Citations

Suhas Vyavhare, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist David Kerns, Professor, IPM Coordinator and Extension Specialist. ENTO-069. 2017. Thrips. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.

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Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

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Article author: Dalton Ludwick
Most recently reviewed by: Pat Porter & Extension Entomologist at Weslaco (Vacant) (2021)

Common Name(s): Brown marmorated stink bug

Description

Brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys Stål, is an invasive stink bug species in the United States. This stink bug belongs to the family Pentatomidae. Hundreds of native stink bugs exist in the United States; some stink bug species are predatory and feed on other arthropods while other species are herbivorous and feed on plant tissues.

Brown marmorated stink bugs have five-segmented antennae with alternating black and white markings. On adults, black and white abdominal segments protrude from the margins of the wings when at rest. Adults range in size from 1/2 to 5/8”. Furthermore, immature brown marmorated stink bug have black and white markings present on the hind legs..

Populations of this pest can go unchecked allowing for immeasurable numbers of this pest. Where brown marmorated stink bug populations build, nuisance issues can occur in springs and falls when overwintering adult insects seek out shelter in human-made structures or emerge from their shelters.

Fifth instar brown marmorated stink bug nymph. Image by Yerpo under CC-BY-SA-3.0.

Origin and Distribution

Brown marmorated stink bug is native to China but the species has invaded other countries including South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Brown marmorated stink bug has been found in 46 states in the United States. Population size and resulting damage vary from state to state ranging from detections to severe infestations and agricultural damage.

 

EDDMapS. 2021. Early Detection & Distribution Mapping System. The University of Georgia – Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health. Available online at http://www.eddmaps.org/; last accessed February 15, 2021.

Habitat & Hosts

Brown marmorated stink bug is an herbivorous insect with a wide range of host plants (Leskey et al. 2012a, Bergmann et al. 2016). Hosts include unmanaged wildlands where plants such as tree of heaven, black walnut, and cherry species grow as well as managed areas growing vegetables, ornamentals, small fruits, and tree fruit. As a result of the wide host range and its ability to disperse, this stink bug will travel across the landscape to find suitable hosts. Brown marmorated stink bug typically is found feeding on foliage and fruiting structures of plants.

Life Cycle

Brown marmorated stink bug follows the life cycle of a true bug: egg, nymph, and adult. Depending on the location, up to two generations can occur. In Texas, it is probable that brown marmorated stink bug would have two generations similar to other southern regions in the United States.

The first stage encountered in the spring is the adult. Adults emerge from overwintering sites (e.g., homes, human-made structures, tree bark) once temperatures and daylengths are favorable. Adults will then seek out sources of food, including tree of heaven and many other hosts. Adult females require more time to prepare for mating, but they will start mating in the spring. After mating, females will typically lay egg masses on the underside of leaves. On average, there are approximately 28 eggs/mass.

Upon hatch, first instar immature insects emerge from eggs almost simultaneously and reside on top of the egg mass. After reaching the second instar, the insects move off the egg mass and onto plant tissues where they feed. All immature stages past the second instar continue to feed on the plant. After completing their immature development, the adult brown marmorated stink bugs will feed, mate, and lay egg masses for the next generation.

Management

If you live in the State of Texas, contact your local county agent or entomologist for management information. If you live outside of Texas, contact your local extension for management options.

Management varies significantly by situation and crop. There are more than 170 plant species than can be used as hosts, including field/sweet corn, cotton, soybeans, hemp, apple, peach, and other crops.,

If you live in the State of Texas, contact your local county agent or entomologist for management information. If you live outside of Texas, then contact your local extension for management options.

Related Publications

Management of brown marmorated stink bug in specialty crops. StopBMSB.

Citations

Bergmann, E. J., P.D. Venugopal, H.M. Martinson, M.J. Raupp, and P. M. Shrewsbury. 2016. Host plant use by the invasive Halyomorpha halys (Stål) on woody ornamental trees and shrubs. PLoS One. 11: e0149975.

Leskey, T.C., G.C. Hamilton, A.L. Nielsen, D.F. Polk, C. Rodriguez-Saona, J.C. Bergh, D.A. Herbert, T.P. Kuhar, D. Pfeiffer, G.P. Dively, C.R.R. Hooks, M.J. Raupp, P.M. Shrewsbury, G. Krawczyk, P.W. Shearer, J. Whalen, C. Koplinka-Loehr, E. Myers, D. Inkley, K.A. Hoelmer, D.-H. Lee, S.E. Wright. 2012. Pest status of the brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys in the USA. Outlooks on Pest Management. 23: 218–226.

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Garden Fleahopper

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Article author: Tyler Mays
Most recently reviewed by: Blayne Reed & Ballinger (Vacant) (2021)

Common Name(s): Fleahopper, Garden fleahopper

Description

The garden fleahopper is a small insect roughly 1/16 of an inch in size and is black with yellow spots. The females have two forms: a long wing and a short wing. Males and long-winged females resemble tiny, tarnished plant bugs, and the wings have membranous tips that extend past the end of the abdomen. The forewings of short-winged female lack the membranous portion and resemble the forewings of beetles. Garden fleahoppers can be confused with flea beetles because of their size and jumping habits when disturbed; and aphids because of their small size, but aphids do not hop when disturbed.

Garden fleahoppers are commonly found on the underside of leaves or plant terminals and tend to hop, jump, or fly when disturbed. This insect feeds on the plant’s leaf tissue and young fruiting sites and will give the leaf chlorotic spots due to cells dying, resembling the damage caused by spider mites and can cause malformation or fruit shed of flowing fruit.

Origin and Distribution

The garden fleahopper is a native insect and is widely distributed in the eastern United State of America and Canada. It is also distributed as far west as the Rocky Mountains and southward into the Caribbean as well as Central and South America.

Habitat & Hosts

The garden fleahopper has a wide host range and can be found infesting field crops, ornamentals, and vegetable crops. Commonly infested field crops include alfalfa, clover, sweet clover, and has been observed infesting cotton on the Texas High Plains recently. Ornamental plants infested include chrysanthemum, daisy, marigold, and salvia. Several vegetable plants can be infested including bean, cabbage, cowpea, cucumber, eggplant, lettuce, pea, pepper, potato, squash, sweet potato, and tomato. Garden fleahoppers can also be found feeding on several weedy plants including bindweed, pigweed, mallow, ragweed, and many others.

Life Cycle

The garden fleahopper has an incomplete life cycle (hemimetabolous) and passes through an egg and 5 nymphal instars before becoming an adult. Their life cycle can be completed in roughly 30 days depending on environmental temperatures. Under cold temperatures this insect overwinters (diapause) in the egg stage, and in warmer climates it overwinters as the adult stage.

Eggs are inserted into the leaves and stems of plants at puncture wounds and dead plants are white to yellow in color. Once nymphs hatch from the egg, they are a pale green and become darker shades of green with each instar. The nymph passes through a total of five instars before becoming adults in 11 to 41 days based on the temperature.

Nymphs and adults feed on both leaf and stem tissue by piercing cells and feed on the cell’s contents. This feeding damage causes the cells to die and gives the leaves a stippling appearance with chlorotic spots, similar to the damage caused by spider mites and can cause early fruit shed in squaring cotton or malformation of the flower. Leaves heavily damaged by the garden fleahopper will die prematurely. This damage can also hinder the sale of plants grown for fresh leaves like lettuce and herbs, or the reduce ornamental sales because they are no longer aesthetically pleasing to the customer.

Management

If you live in the State of Texas, contact your local county agent or entomologist for management information. If you live outside of Texas, contact your local extension for management options.

The garden fleahopper can be suppressed easily with labeled insecticides, and therefore tend to be a pest of gardens rather than commercial production sites, but economic populations in both do occur. In gardens these fleahoppers can be managed with home/garden insecticides labeled for aphid management. The eggs are protected from insecticide application because they are inside the plant tissue, and a second insecticide application may be needed once the eggs hatch to reduce damage. Physically removing weedy hosts close to and within or nearby to production sites and gardens can keep garden fleahopper numbers from reaching damaging levels. Natural enemies of the garden fleahopper do exist and can be used to manage their population. These natural enemies include parasitic wasps and a predatory mite among other predacious insects and spiders mobile enough to catch the fleahopper. For management recommendation please contact your local County Extension Office.

Related Publications

Managing Cotton Insects in Texas. https://extensionentomology.tamu.edu/files/2018/03/ENTO075.pdf

Citations

Capinera, John L. 2020. Featured Creatures: Garden Fleahopper. University of Florida Publication: EENY-78. entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/leaf/fleahopper.htm. Accessed Nov. 30, 2020

Bessin, Ric. 2019. Garden Fleahopper. University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Publication:Entfact-307. entomology.ca.uky.du/ef307. Accessed Nov. 30, 2020

Vyavhare, Suhas S., Kerns, David, Allen, Charles, Bowling, Robert, Brewer, M., and Parajulee, M. 2019. Managing Cotton Insects in Texas. Texas A&M AgriLife Publication: ENTO-075. https://extensionentomology.tamu.edu/files/2018/03/ENTO075.pdf. Accessed Nov. 30, 2020

 

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Eastern ten caterpillar

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Article author: Ballinger (Vacant)
Most recently reviewed by: Tyler Mays & Danielle Sekula (2021)

Common Name(s): Eastern tent caterpillar

Description

The eastern tent caterpillar is a pest that attacks several species of trees, producing webs or tents. The larvae are hairy with oval blue spots on the side, black-brown and yellow-orange markings, with a distinctive white stripe down its back. The adult moths have a one inch wingspan and are reddish-brown with two diagonal stripes down its forewing.

The eastern tent caterpillars form unsightly webs in the fork of branches. The tents are small at first but increase in size and often become eye sores. Healthy trees can generally tolerate feeding from eastern tent caterpillars. Trees that are unhealthy, stressed, or young are more susceptible and may suffer more damage.

The eastern tent caterpillar nests are often mistaken for fall webworm nests, which are located at the ends of the branches. The eastern tent caterpillar is native to North America. They can be found in the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains, and in Canada from Nova Scotia to Alberta.

Habitat & Hosts

The eastern tent caterpillar attacks a variety of trees, including ornamental and fruit. They prefer cherry, plum, peach, apple, hawthorn, and related plants. They can sometimes be found feeding on oak.

Life Cycle

In late spring or early summer, female moths deposit egg masses on small twigs or tree branches. The egg masses contain 150-400 eggs. The females use spumaline, a sticky, frothy substance that is used as an adhesive to attach the eggs to the twigs or bark. The spumaline also covers the egg masses to protect them with a hard covering.

The larvae or caterpillars hatch from the eggs in early spring about the time the leaves on their host plant emerge. The caterpillars will start feeding on the leaves and within a few days start to form webs. The webs enlarge as they grow and provide protection for the caterpillars at night, during the heat, and during rainy spells. The larvae move from the tent to feed, so damage on the tree can be far away from the webs. Defoliation is often concentrated because eastern tent caterpillars feed in groups.

As the larvae grow, they molt or shed their skin several times. During the growth stages, or instars, the caterpillars grow from 1/4 inch to about 2 inches. The color of the caterpillar can also change when it’s growing.

The eastern tent caterpillar has one generation per year. Adult moths only live for a few days.

Management

If you live in the State of Texas, contact your local county agent or entomologist for management information. If you live outside of Texas, contact your local extension for management options.

Management of eastern tent caterpillars depends on a few factors such as the amount of defoliation, size of webs present, and the nuisance the caterpillars cause. For the best control, you may need to combine cultural and chemical techniques. Prevention and early control are extremely important when it comes to controlling eastern tent caterpillars.

Cultural control

The removal and destruction of egg masses during winter pruning is important to reduce eastern tent caterpillar problems. Normal pruning often removes the caterpillar eggs before they hatch. You should prune twigs containing webs in the spring when you first start to notice the webs. Small webs can be physically removed by hand, while larger tents can be destroyed by a high-pressure water spray or using a long pole.

Biological control

Natural enemies play an important role in controlling eastern tent caterpillars. Caterpillars are often parasitized by braconid and chalcid wasps. Tent caterpillars are also fed on by other insects such as assassin bugs and paper wasps.

Chemical control

Before spraying insecticides for eastern tent caterpillars, keep in mind that trees that are defoliated early in the season will typically put on new leaves. Also, insecticides are not very effective on mature larvae, so they should be used when caterpillars are an inch or less. If the tent caterpillars have been allowed to feed and complete their development, it would be pointless to spray an insecticide.

Insecticides can be used on the webs as a spot treatment. You should apply them in the early morning or evening so the caterpillars will be in the web when you spray the insecticide.

Some naturally derived products that are used to control tent caterpillars include Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) variety kurstaki, spinosad, and insecticidal soaps. All of these products will control the smaller caterpillars. When using Bt or spinosad, spray the plant thoroughly so that the product will be eaten by the caterpillars.  Insecticidal soaps must be sprayed directly on the caterpillars to kill them.

Plant derived insecticides for controlling tent caterpillars include active ingredients pyrethrum and d-limonene. There are also synthetic pesticides such as pyrethroids and carbamates that provide longer residuals than the plant derived insecticides. Some of the active ingredients include: bifenthrin, cyfluthrin, permethrin, and carbaryl. Since these are broad spectrum insecticides; it will kill the caterpillars along with the beneficial insects. Always read and follow the instructions on the product label.

Citations

Bessin, Ric. Eastern Tent Caterpillar. University of Kentucky Entomology Publication: Entfact-423. https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/files/ef423.pdf

Hahn, Jeffrey. Eastern Tent Caterpillars. University of Minnesota Extension. https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-insects/eastern-tent-caterpillars

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Thrips

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Article author: Kerry Siders
Most recently reviewed by: Suhas Vyavhare & Pat Porter (2020)

Common Name(s): Thrips

Description

Thrips are slender, cigar-shaped, straw-colored insects about 1/15-inch-long as an adult. They have piercing and sucking, cone-shaped mouthparts. Adults have narrow wings fringed with hairs and can drift long distances in the wind. Due to their small size, thrips are often difficult to see.

Habitat & Hosts

Onion thrips have an extremely wide host range. They feed and can reproduce on several cultivated crops including onion, cotton, beans, fruits, vegetables, and practically all small grains. Citrus thrips feed on leaves and fruit of most all species of citrus tree plants. Greenhouse thrips feed on a wide range of horticulture plants. Gladiolus thrips feed on gladiolus and other species of flowers. Western flower thrips feed on a wide variety of plants including chrysanthemums, gloxinia, impatiens, tomato, cotton, vegetables, and grasses. Some plants species, varieties and cultivars are more attractive to the thrips than others.

Gorse Thrips

Gorse Thrips. Photo by George Markin, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

Life Cycle

In the thrips life cycle, egg-to-adult development takes about 16 days. Eggs inserted into the plant tissue by the female’s sharp egg-laying tube (ovipositor) hatch in about 6 days. Two larval stages require about 6 days for completion; then, the prepupal and pupal stages take an additional 4 days and generally occur in the soil. The average life span of a mated female is about 35 days, and each female can produce fifty or more eggs. Thrips can reproduce without mating. Mated females produce both males and females; unmated females produce only males

Management

If you live in the State of Texas, contact your local county agent or entomologist for management information. If you live outside of Texas, contact your local extension for management options.

Thrips management needs and strategies vary across commodities. Avoid planting cotton during cool conditions so that young plants will not be affected when plants are most susceptible to thrips damage. Not planting cotton near small grains and onions or adjusting planting date helps alleviate thrips migration into the field. Chemical control is an effective way of managing thrips. Chemical control options include insecticide application (foliar/in-furrow) and/or seed treatments. Seed treatments include the following: clothianidin/Bacillus firmus I-1582, imidacloprid, imidacloprid and thiodicarb, thiamethoxam, thiametoxam and abamectin, thiametoxam and abamectin and imidacloprid.

Related Publications

http://lubbock.tamu.edu/files/2017/05/Thrips_ENTO-069.pdf

Bugwood Images