PEST PROFILES: PLANT BUGS

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Tarnished Plant Bug Harlequin Bugs Hatching Tarnished Plant Bug Click on image to view larger.

Plant bugs Description: Plant bugs include the tarnished plant bug, and rapid plant bug. Adults are oval, flattened insects about 1/4 inch long, predominantly coppery-brown with some whitish-yellow markings. Nymphs are similar to adults but lack wings, and is greenish and marked with black spots on the segments behind the head. Damage: Injure a wide variety of plants. Plant bugs inject toxic saliva into the plant during feeding. On leaves, injuries appear as chlorotic spotting or distortion. Injury to buds of developing fruit causes them to become dwarfed and pitted a type of injury called cat-facing. Life cycle: Adults overwinter in protected habitats and become active in the spring. Females oviposit whitish elongated eggs into or on host plants that hatch in about 8 days. Tiny nymphs (1/25 inch long) are pale green when they first hatch. They feed and develop through 5 instars as they grow, change color and develop wing pads before becoming adults. Development from egg to adult takes about 3 to 4 weeks, and 3 to 5 generations can be produced each year.