3/6/2017 Managing Pesky Insects On Vegetables - Lets Get Started - - - PDF document

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Managing Pesky Insects On Vegetables

• Let’s Get Started-

Where We’re Going: Hit the Highlights

• Integrated Pest Management
• Entomology: Nuts & Bolts
• Into Your Garden:

–Vegetables-pests & beneficials –(Next time…) –Fruits & Nuts –Landscape Plants

Integrated Pest Management **IPM**

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…a combination of biological, cultural & chemical pest control methods that reduce pest damage to acceptable levels while maintaining environmental integrity Appropriate for all pests, all crops, all areas Scout often. Identify FIRST! No ‘see and spray’ for anything Regulate if needed, not eradicate Keep yourself, pets, family, non-targets & environment safe

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Importance of Identification

*It’s the key to information about an unknown *Is it a pest/beneficial/harmless visitor? *Key to control information---if needed, which stage is most vulnerable? Appropriate treatment? If you need help, ASK Your County Extension Agent!!!

Your “Tools” for IPM

• Horticultural: right cultivars, time (of year),

water (salinity, pH), sun/shade, weeds

• Soils: test, texture, salinity, fertility, organics
• Mechanical: hand picking, sanitation
• Barriers: mulch?, screens, row covers, hoop house,

greenhouse

• Beneficials: predators, parasitoids, pathogens
• Insecticides: Organic? Minerals, soaps, oils, botanicals,
• microbials. Conventional?

Nuts & Bolts: Basic Entomology

• What is an Insect?

– Phylum Arthropoda—’jointed legs or feet’ – Segmented body – Exoskeleton with chitin – Adults have 6 legs; 2 antennae; max. 4 wings; 3 body parts/regions – Modern spp. small; often prolific, widespread

• - Immatures may/may not look like adults

they will become

• - Behavior, seasonal appearance, host

ranges, impacts highly variable by species

• Good News/Bad News---80+% of animal species are INSECTS!

Some are pests; others beneficial---most are ‘neutral’

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Exoskeleton Problem---Molting “Solves” It for Growth & Development Simple Metamorphosis: Aphids, Bugs, Grasshoppers, et al.

Nymphs Egg Adult Wing Pad I II III IV V

Plant Bug

Immatures & adults---may occur, feed together Immature stages---find & control these = less damage?

Complete Metamorphosis: Beetles, Moths, Flies, Bees, et al.

Egg

• --Larvae (Instars)---

Pupa Adult Damaging Stage(s) for Insects w/Complete Metamorphosis? Larvae and/or adult?

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Chewing Mouthparts: Grasshopper

Labrum (upper) Maxilla Mandible ** (2 of these) Labium (lower) Damage done? Chewing, gnawing, boring Cicada nymph Cross-section Through beak True bug feeding, Side view

Piercing-Sucking Mouthparts: aphids, bugs, scales

Mandible ** Maxilla

Damage? Tiny dots on foliage, stems; wilting, injections of toxins, Pathogenschlorosis, necrosis

Muscles

Nomenclature---’Relationships’

Based on Morphology & Genetics (Increasingly)

Phylum - Arthropoda Class – Insecta Order – Diptera Family – Muscidae Genus – Musca Species – domestica Scientific name = Musca domestica Common name = House fly *You may have learned some of these in school?

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Common Orders of Insects (et al.) That You Can See on Vegetables…

• No Metamorphosis

– Acari = mites

• Simple Metamorphosis

– Odonata = dragonflies, damselflies – Orthoptera = grasshoppers – Thysanoptera = thrips – Hemiptera = ‘bugs’

• Complete

Metamorphosis

– Coleoptera = beetles – Lepidoptera = moths, butterflies – (Diptera = flies) – (Hymenoptera = ants, bees, wasps, sawflies) – (Neuroptera = lacewings, antlions)

Order Orthoptera Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids

• 3rd legs enlargedjumping
• Forewings straight, hind

wings fan-like

• Chewing mouthparts
• Simple metamorphosis

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• NM has 160 species
• Highly variable in form,

distribution, mobility

Order Thysanoptera Thrips (e.g. onion & W. flower)

• ‘Fringed’ wings
• Minute
• Rasping/sucking

mouthparts

• Eggs laid in plant

tissues

• Virus vectors
• Metamorphosis

‘between’ simple & complete

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Order Hemiptera-3 Large ‘Groups’

Leafhopper group

• Active: jumping, flying
• Small< ¼”
• Wedge-shaped w/spiny hind

tibiae, sucking mps

• Eggs laid in host tissues
• Some are pathogen vectors

Aphid, psyllid, whitefly group (highly variable)

• Generally sedentary; some

immatures immobile

• Small< 1/8”, soft-bodied
• Parthenogenesis, live birth
• Sucking mps, honeydew
• Pathogen vectors

Order Hemiptera-3 Large ‘Groups’

(Heteroptera, Leafhopper, Aphid et al.)

All w/sucking mps, simple metamorphosis ‘Heteroptera group’

• ‘Bugs,’ in general
• Sucking mp; damage

variablechlorosis, necrosis

• Various features of

beak, antennae, legs, wings, behavior, habitat are used to separate families

Order Coleoptera Beetles

• Forewings cover all
• r part of abdomen;

hardened, opaque

• Hind wings usually

membranous, used in flight; folded at rest

• Antennae, legs, body,

size variable

• Chewing mps, complete

metamorphosis

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Order Lepidoptera

Moths & Butterflies

• Adults w/2 pr broad,

flat wings w/scales

• Adults w/siphoning

mps or none; harmless

• Larvae = caterpillars

w/chewing mps, defoliate

• r bore into plants
• Many species nocturnal

Finding Those Insects

As you weed or do other chores.. Scoot one of these under suspect plants; shake plants, see what’s in the pan---AHA!

$$$

More Tools to Detect/Track Pests

• Sticky traps
• Pheromone traps
• Baited traps

Spotted Wing Drosophila Trap Pheromone trap for various spp. moths, etc. Helps you DETECT pests, DETERMINE activity periods, TIME treatments, etc. But you need to ID target pest!

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Into the Garden We Go…

• Arranged by Insect Order

– Examples of pests in that order – See usual damage associated with each pest – Options for management?

Evidence of Pests