Dangers of cedarwood

Before you jump on the cedarwood oil bandwagon, however, you need to know that there is a downside. Research has shown that, while exposure to cedar wood oils can interrupt the reproductive and developmental cycles of peanut trash bugs, Indian meal moths, and forage mites, prolonged exposure to these oils increases your chances of getting cancer. 


Strangely enough, European turnip moth larvae love eating cedar. Isn’t life weird?

Polyphagous shot hole borer as farmers

Polyphagous shot hole borers are a type of ambrosia beetle. Rather than feeding on bark or wood or sap, ambrosia beetles eat fungi that they grow for themselves. Polyphagous shot hole borers have tiny pockets on their exoskeleton. In these pockets, they carry spores of the Fusarium euwallaceae fungi. After burrowing into a tree, the borer starts growing these fungi along the walls of the burrowed galleries. The fungi provide adult and larval forms of polyphagous shot hole borers with food in a protected environment and the borers carry the fungi to new trees. It's a win-win situation for them. The problem is, this fungi causes Fusarium dieback. Fusarium dieback causes branch dieback, canopy loss, and it can kill trees.


Polyphagous shot hole borer management

Yellow sticky cards, purple prism traps, and multiple funnel traps have been used with some success. Because polyphagous shot hole borers have no natural enemies here in California, and because they live inside the tree, safe from insecticides, prevention is worth the effort.


Polyphagous shot hole borers are most commonly spread on firewood. If infested trees are chipped into mulch, the borers can catch a ride to your trees, so always inspect wood chips before accepting them. Wood chips cut into pieces smaller than 1” are generally considered safe because the borers get chopped up too. Personally, if I saw black galleries, I would refuse delivery just in case.


If you suspect polyphagous shot hole borers have found your trees, please contact your local County Extension Office right away.

If you have a tree with conks, you should probably contact a certified arborist. They can inspect the tree for structural integrity and to determine the extent of the infection.


Conks may look cool, but you don’t want them on your trees.

Canker rot identification

Cankers are open wounds, or lesions. Cankers can be a few inches long and wide, or several feet long, depending on the fungal species. The bark next to these cankers dies, becoming discolored, often lighter or orangish, and it is tightly bonded to the canker. After a year or so, the dead inner bark turns black and stringy. This looks a lot like sooty bark canker, but canker rot can also have lenticular (lens-shaped) lighter areas in the bark. Unlike other canker diseases, canker rot affects both bark and inner tissue. ​

Prune limb borer management

Mature, healthy trees can often withstand a prune limb borer or two, but young trees can be killed by heavy infestations. Like other borers, these pests are easier to prevent than control. Inside the tree, they are safe from predators and pesticides. Use these tips to prevent prune limb borers from taking up residence in your trees:

• Keep pruning cuts smooth, so they can heal quickly
• Provide sunburn protection by whitewashing trunks and exposed branches
• Avoid mechanical injury by lawnmowers, weedwackers, and cars

Over-the-counter pesticides and insecticides are not effective against prune borers. If you have a badly infested tree, it  may be worthwhile to hire a professional to apply a residual, contact insecticide.

Since healthy trees are better able to withstand attack, proper feeding and irrigation go a long way toward minimizing clearwing damage. Whitewashing tree trunks and exposed branches reduces sunburn injury. If your soil is compacted, apply a thick layer of mulch or install a ground cover  to help aerate the soil. This will help keep your trees healthier, just make sure the mulch or ground cover are kept a few inches away from the trunk to prevent fungal disease. Also, avoid injuring trees with lawn mowers, weed wackers, and other landscape equipment and tools, and remove tree stakes as soon as they are no longer needed.


Pheromone lures can be used to monitor for these pests. Just keep in mind that using pheromone lures attracts pests. These lures interfere with mating, so they can reduce clearwing populations, but this method requires an intensive, ongoing program of pheromone use. It’s probably not worth the effort for backyard trees. You can also buy pheromone traps for peachtree borers and ash borers. If using pheromone traps, be sure to follow the manufacturer’s directions exactly.


Monitoring trees every week for signs of burrowing and pupal cases is an easy way to protect your trees. You may see partially emerged pupae, which can be crushed or skewered with a piece of wire. Gumming around the base of the tree may also indicate peachtree borers.



Beneficial insects, such as braconid wasps, will kill or parasitize clearwing moths and their larvae, so avoid using broad spectrum pesticides and insecticides. Also, you can buy certain nematodes (Steinernema carpocapsae and S. feltiae) to kill peachtree borer, redbelted clearwing, sycamore borer, and western poplar clearwing. Again, follow the directions exactly for the best results.


If a truly valuable tree has a bad clearwing infestation, you should call a licensed pest control applicator. They have access to chemicals that you do not. Most over-the-counter clearwing controls are not effective.

Not to be confused with the other black spot (Diplocarpon rosae), which primarily affects leaves, Ascochyta blight can infect any aboveground portion of your chickpea plants, as well as your lawn. Lawns infected with Ascochyta blight suddenly develop brown patches of dead-looking grass. Ascochyta blight is caused by Ascochyta rabiei (formerly known as Phoma rabiei).


Ascochyta blight symptoms

Brown lesions that start at the base of seedlings may start out looking like damping-off disease, but these lesions continue to move up the plant, eventually affecting everything aboveground. ​

Ascochyta blight management

Ascochyta blight can be spread by infected seeds, so always start your garbanzo bean crop with certified disease-free seeds. Do not use that bag of garbanzo beans from the grocery store. The price might be appealing and those seeds are safe to eat, but they may also carry any number of pests and diseases that might take years to get rid of. You can also select disease resistant varieties. According to UCANR, the following varieties of garbanzo are currently resistant to Ascochyta blight: Sierra, Dylan, Sutter, San Joaquin, and the Airway Farms (AWF) series. That resistance can and will change because fungi evolve faster than plants.


At the first sign of infection, the affected plant should be removed and tossed in the trash. You don’t want to leave infected plant material in the garden or compost pile because this can simply spread the disease to more plants. 


Ascochyta blight does not survive in the soil, so crop rotation is a good way to break the disease cycle. 


If Ascochyta blight has been a serious problem in past years, space plants out more for better air flow, and plant seeds as late in the season as possible.


Fungicides can be used at the first sign of disease and reapplied according to package directions.

Rough stink bug diet

Like other stink bugs, a rough’s favorite foods are plant-based. While other species prefer fruits and vegetables, the rough stink bug diet is predominantly the leaves and developing seeds of ash, boxelder, walnut, willow, and many other trees. The thing that makes the rough stink bug beneficial is that they also feed on caterpillars and leaf beetle larvae.


Rough stink bug lifecycle

Rough stink bugs spend their winters hidden under logs or the bark of trees. They may also try to get in your home. If they do, keep in mind that their name is an important clue. If you vacuum them up or squash them in your home, there will be consequences. Stinky ones. Instead, sweep them up with a dustpan and drop them into a container of soapy water or feed them to your chickens.


As spring temperatures rise, rough stink bugs become active again and start looking for a mate. Mated females lay clusters of 10 to 20 white, elongated eggs before they die. Two weeks later, the eggs hatch and pale colored nymphs emerge and begin feeding. There is one generation per year in most regions.


In most cases, getting rid of stink bugs is a good idea. The rough stink bug is an exception.

Insect pests can damage garden plants by feeding on them, burrowing into them, or by carrying diseases. ​

Insecticides can be repellent or non-repellent. Repellents discourage insects from bothering a plant in the first place. Non-repellents are especially effective against social insects, such as ants. Being a non-repellent, the insecticide is not offensive to the pest, so they walk through it and end up carrying it back to their nest, ultimately killing the entire colony.


Types of insecticides

There are three basic types of insecticide: natural, inorganic, and organic. Natural insecticides are enzymes and other protective substances made by plants as part of their arsenal against insect pests. These natural insecticides include nicotine, neem, and pyrethrum. Pyrethrum is made from the dried flower heads of two chrysanthemum species: Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium and Chrysanthemum coccineum. Other natural insecticides include the chemical that gives horseradish its fiery bite, rosin, and wintergreen.


Inorganic insecticides are made from metals. Organic insecticides are organic chemical compounds that are generally work by making contact with an insect.


The problem with insecticides 

Being poisons, insecticides can affect our health, as well as kill insects. Insecticides can also remain in the food supply, increasing in concentration as they move up the food chain. This is important because we are at the top of our food chain. [It is a lot like mercury in fish.] Many of these problems can be reduced or eliminated by understanding the different types of insecticides and using them responsibly.


Broad-spectrum insecticides

Like weedkiller sprays, broad-spectrum insecticides are very appealing. A problem appears. You spray it. The problem is gone. Fantastic. Except that the problem is not gone. In fact, the problem just got worse. By spraying broad-spectrum insecticides, all insects are affected. Beneficial predatory insects, pollinators, burrowing soil arthropods, and our beloved honey bees are all subject to the same poisoning.


There are several type of broad-spectrum insecticides, in order of toxicity, all of which interfere with nerve cell transmissions:
    

• organochlorides (e.g., DDT)
• most organophosphate (e.g., malathion, dimethoate)
• carbamate (e.g., carbaryl–Sevin, methomyl–Lannate)
• pyrethroids (e.g., beta-cyfluthrin–Baythroid, fenpropathrin–Danitol) 
• neonicotinoids (imidacloprid–Admire, acetamiprid–Assail)
• ryanoids (e.g., Rynaxypyr)

Educate yourself about ingredients

Before applying insecticides, you can protect yourself and the environment by learning more about the ingredients. For example, some beneficial insects, such as lacewings, are tolerant of pyrethroids, while beetles, parasitic wasps, and predatory mites are very sensitive to the same chemicals.


You should also ask yourself how long the ingredients of any particular insecticide will remain in the environment. Insecticides are commonly grouped by persistence: short (days), intermediate (up to 6 weeks), or long (months). 


Finally, are insects developing a resistance to an insecticide? If so, it should be avoided and another product used.


Reducing risks associated with insecticides

Before resorting to the use of insecticides, be sure you have done the following:

1. Properly identify the pest in question.
2. Decide on a tolerance level.
3. Practice Integrated Pest Management.
4. Consider the area - who and what will be exposed if insecticides are used?
5. Select a product specific to your pest.
6. Educate yourself about the ingredients before applying the product.
7. Read the label completely and follow the directions exactly, including safety equipment.
8. Buy only what you will use during the current season.
9. Always keep insecticides away from pets and children.

In many cases, it is against federal law to use insecticides improperly, and for good reason.


As quickly as insects can reproduce, it often feels like a losing battle. This is what makes the use of modern insecticides so appealing. Insecticides are an easy way to kill insects. But not all insecticides are safe to use on edible plants. And many insecticides interfere with the delicate balance that exists in a healthy environment. Knowing more about the different ways insecticides work, and how and when to apply them properly, can prevent longterm problems while still reducing the damage done to your plants by insect pests.

When I first read the name drugstore beetle, I conjured up images of an 1800s mercantile being harassed by a gunslinging beetle wearing spurs. I have no idea why. ​

Drugstore beetle lifecycle

Female drugstore beetles can lay up to 75 eggs at a time, and the egg-laying season can last for months. That works out to a tremendous number of offspring. Those eggs are usually laid in dried foods, such as cereals, dried fruit, grains, herbs, and nuts. Eggs may also be found in dried meat, hair, wool, and candy.


As those eggs are laid, they are covered with a yeast fungus. This fungi and the beetles cannot live without each other. This is an example of obligatory symbiosis. In less than two months, larvae pupate into adulthood, protected by tiny cocoons, and the cycle begins again.


Damage caused by drugstore beetles

After the eggs hatch, it is the larvae that cause damage by burrowing through and feeding on a wide variety of materials. They also leave frass (big poop) and webbing behind, as well as stray hairs and secretions.


Drugstore beetle larvae love dried plant products, such as cereals, beans, pasta, rice, bread, flour, and spices. Apparently, paprika and chili powder are drugstore beetle favorites, though they will eat practically anything. Larvae are also commonly found in tea, potpourri, tobacco, wreaths, and birds’ nests and they have been known to damage books, leather, hair, and museum specimens.


In the garden, drugstore beetles are a major pest of cumin.


Drugstore beetle control

Drugstore beetles are often carried into the home, garden, or landscape in bulk items, such as grass seed, bird seed, or dry pet food. They may also hitch a ride on packaged food. This is why it is important to look for holes in food packaging and avoid those products. While adult drugstore beetles do not eat, they often chew holes in plastic, foil, and paperboard food packaging. You may also see pockmarks in crackers and pasta. Inspecting foodstuffs and bulk items before you bring them home can prevent infestation.


When bringing crops, such as beans and other seeds, into the home., it is a good idea to freeze them overnight to kill any larvae that may be lurking. This is an easy way to keep your home from becoming infested. Diatomaceous earth (DE) can also be used lightly in areas where drugstore beetles may be lurking.


Pheromone traps and insecticides are not effective against drugstore beetles.

Gooseberry moth lifecycle

Adult moths lay eggs on currants and gooseberries. When the eggs hatch, larvae burrow into the fruit and begin feeding on the pulp. This discolors the fruit and causes it to drop prematurely. A single larva will feed on several berries. Berries may be held together by a silken thread. There is usually only one generation each year but, being invasive insects, the lack of natural predators may cause that to change.


Gooseberry moth controls

Handpick and destroy any larvae you see, or feed them to your chickens. Bacillus thuringiensis and spinosad can also be used against these pests. Treatments should be applied when fruit is first developing and again 10 days later.

Those black spots might not look like anything important, but this bacterial disease can also affect peppers, eggplant, groundcherries, and tomatillos, along with your tomatoes. Close cousin to the bacterial spot of almonds and practically impossible to differentiate from bacterial speck without a microscope, bacterial spot (Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria ) is perfectly capable of killing your tomato plants.

Bacterial spot symptoms

Symptoms of bacterial spot can appear on all life stages, from seedlings to mature plants, and on all aboveground plant parts. Bacteria enter through wounds and stoma. Infected younger plants can be completed defoliated by bacterial spot. Older plants exhibit insignificant looking water-soaked areas on mature leaves, usually near the bottom of the plant. making it easier to dismiss this disease. This would be a mistake.


Closer inspection of these lesions shows that they start out yellow or light green, turning dark brown or black. Older spots may be raised areas that average 1/3” across. Larger damaged areas may be seen at the margins (leaf edges). ​

Immature fruit can also be affected by bacterial spot. Bacteria enter through tiny hairs, called trichomes. Infected areas start out looking like tiny raised black dots which then become sunken or dimpled, and surrounded by a white halo, similar to bacterial canker. The halos eventually disappear as the spots get larger and become scabby. These fruits, if they are able to mature at all without rotting on the vine, are still edible. Simply cut out the diseased areas. Just be sure to dispose of the infected parts in the trash. Do not add them to your compost pile.


Controlling bacterial spot

Because these bacteria overwinter in infected plant debris, you can protect next year’s crops by clearing infected plant tissue out of your garden completely each fall. The disease can also appear on volunteer tomato plants, so watch rogue tomato plants closely for signs of infection. Splashing rain, irrigation water, and contaminated tools can also spread the disease, so avoid overhead watering and be sure to sanitize your garden tools regularly.


Since these bacteria need humidity and water droplets to survive, pruning for good air flow can go a long way toward preventing this disease.


If you are like me and save seeds from each year’s crops, be sure you don’t use seeds from an infected plant, as you will be perpetuating the disease. As always, only buy certified disease-free plants and seeds and always quarantine new plants. Fixed copper sprays can be used in areas where bacterial spot has been a significant problem, although there have been some cases of copper-resistant bacteria. Crop rotation can also be used to break this disease triangle.


Protect next year’s crops by tossing plants infected with bacterial spot into the trash and providing good air flow around future plants.

If you look closely, you might see tiny black dots emerging from those cracks. Those dots are fungal fruiting bodies, called pycnidia. If you look at pycnidia with a microscope, they are flask-shaped.  Pycnidia formation is followed by a different type of fruiting body, called perithecia. Perithecia are also black, but they are medium-sized and, if you watch, erupting with spores.


Spur blight lifecycle

Spur blight is spread by spores on wind, rain, and irrigation water. These spores are released each time wet weather occurs, even if that wet weather is your garden hose. If that infected water falls on or near young canes, newly forming buds, leaves, wounds, or stoma, infection can occur. Once inside, this disease spreads throughout the plant, overwintering in the lesions.


How to manage spur blight

Proper sanitation and pruning methods will go a long way toward preventing spur blight on your beloved raspberries. In late winter or early spring, before new canes emerge, remove all dead, diseased, or weak canes and put them in the trash, rather than the compost pile. Be sure to keep canes properly spaced for good air flow, and train them up trellising that allows canes to dry quickly and to make it easier for you to water your raspberry plants at ground level. You should also keep weeds away, as they complete for water and nutrients and reduce air flow around the canes. Unless a soil test has indicated a genuine need for fertilizer, avoid feeding your raspberries. The presence of too many nutrients causes plants to produce an abundance of vulnerable tissue.


As always, only buy certified, disease-free plants and place new plants in quarantine. In the case if severe infection, fixed copper or lime sulfur treatments may reduce lesion size and control internal infection if applied when new shoots are 8-10” long.


Believe me when I tell you that it is far easier to prevent spur blight than to treat it. And raspberries are worth the effort.

Symptoms appear more strongly in the second and third leaves, but are not likely in later growth. [Weird, right?] Unfortunately, the other symptoms include stunting and reduced fruit and runner production. Your strawberry crop can be reduced by nearly 20% because of vein banding. As soon as another virus takes hold, you can lose your crop entirely.


Strawberry vein banding vectors

Strawberry vein banding is generally carried by strawberry aphids. It can also be transmitted by  taking grafts from infected plants. Strangely enough, coming into contact with dodder can also spread the disease, but sap from an infected plant cannot. Stranger still, a clone of the vein banding virus can infect turnips, a completely unrelated species.


Strawberry vein banding control

In a word, you can’t. Strawberry vein banding can be prevented by only installing certified disease-free plants, placing those plants in quarantine when they first arrive, and removing any plants that you suspect are infected. 


Since aphids can fly at certain points in their development, the threat of this and other viruses is constant. All you can do, besides the preventive measures listed above, is monitor your plants for signs of aphids and control them as well as you can. Insecticides and insecticidal soaps work against aphids, but your strawberry plants need honey bees and other pollinators to produce fruit. Those insecticidal controls will impact your helpers, too, so they should be avoided while plants are flowering.


Closely monitoring your strawberry plants and keeping other plants that might host aphids at a distance can go a long way toward preventing vein banding in your strawberry plants.

Infected with only one of these diseases, strawberry plants often remain symptomless. It isn’t until  a second virus enters the game that symptoms begin to appear. These other viral diseases include strawberry vein banding, crinkle, mottle, mild yellow edge, and beet pseudo yellows. 


Symptoms of strawberry pallidosis

Similar to other strawberry viral diseases, symptoms of strawberry pallidosis include stunting, significantly reduced fruit and runner production, and older leaves turning red or purple. An additional symptom of strawberry pallidosis is that roots are brittle and show fewer rootlets.


Managing strawberry pallidosis

Unlike many other strawberry viral diseases, pallidosis is spread by whiteflies. This makes controlling the disease more difficult. Management strategies are the same for all strawberry viral diseases: only install certified disease-free plants, quarantine new plants, remove infected plants, and control whiteflies as much as you can.

Strawberry mottle is one of several viruses that can affect strawberries. Appearing on its own, the damage tends to be relatively isolated. All too often, however, more than one virus appears at the same time. Collectively, this condition is called virus decline and it can eliminate any chance at enjoying a sweet, juicy strawberry from your garden, no matter how well you care for your plants.


Vectors of strawberry mottle disease

Strawberry mottle is carried by insects, most commonly by strawberry, melon, and cotton aphids. This virus is also spread by vegetative propagation of infected plants. Unlike the strawberry mild yellow edge virus, which is retained in an aphid’s gut for its lifetime, the strawberry mottle virus can only be transmitted for 2 or 3 hours after an aphid or other insect has fed on an infected plant. This makes outbreaks remain relatively localized. [Ten feet away probably looks impossible to a flightless bug that is only 1/8” long.]


Symptoms of strawberry mottle

As insects pierce plant cells to suck out the sugary sap, viruses move from the insect’s saliva to the plant. As viruses tend to do, these pseudo-lifeforms start reprogramming a plant’s cells to produce more viruses, which then clog the works. ​

Strawberry mottle first appears on young leaves as smaller than normal leaves that may also show yellow distorted areas. Plants may be stunted and they certainly produce less fruit and runners than they might otherwise. As the disease progresses, symptoms become more severe, with older leaves turning red.


Strawberry mottle management

Strawberry mottle is more likely when plants are left in place over the winter, but that doesn’t mean you have to rip out your plants every year. [Note: don’t actually rip plants out of the ground. Instead, cut them off at soil level to leave valuable soil microbes in place.]


As always, to reduce the likelihood of strawberry mottle appearing in your garden, only buy certified disease-free plants and always place new plants in quarantine. As much as possible, try to control aphids around strawberry plants. If a plant becomes infected, remove it.

Strawberry mild yellow edge virus is a long name for a disease that can reduce your strawberry crop by as much as 30%. Strawberry mild yellow edge virus often appears at the same time as the mottle virus, both of which are transmitted by some aphid species. Nematodes may also add raspberry ringspot virus to the mix.


Strawberry mild yellow edge virus symptoms

As with most viral diseases, stunting is a common symptom of strawberry mild yellow edge virus. Older leaves may turn bright red, but leaves around the crown nearly always exhibit yellow margins or edges, hence the name. These yellowed areas eventually die and turn brown. Leaf cupping may also occur.


Since these symptoms look a lot like water-stress, fertilizer burn, overly acidic pH, boron toxicity, or bad weather, it is important to rule those things out before deciding on a plan. Once strawberry mild yellow edge virus has made an appearance in your garden, there are steps you can take to minimize the damage.


How to manage strawberry mild yellow edge virus

Even though the fruits of infected plants are still edible, plants infected with strawberry mild yellow edge virus should be removed to reduce the chance of spread. Aphids carrying the strawberry mild yellow edge virus are disease vectors for life. The only thing to do if the disease is present is to use insecticidal soap on each and every aphid that might be a carrier. Just be sure to do this at a time when honey bees and other pollinators will not be attending the flowers. Common lambsquarters and other Chenopods can also carry this disease, so keep these plants away from your strawberry plants.


This disease is most common when plants are grown using a matted-row method. The matted-row system allows parent plants to send out runners, or daughter plants, which will produce fruit the following spring. This is a very productive method that has been around for a long time. It gets its name because the runners end up intertwined, creating a mat. The only problem with the matted-row system is that it means plants are in place for a longer period of time. This makes infection more likely.


As always, place new plants into quarantine until you are sure that they are disease-free.

Strawberry crinkle virus symptoms

Wilting, reduced runner production, smaller fruit, deformed and/or streaked flower petals, and crinkled leaves are all symptoms of strawberry crinkle virus. Vein spotting may also be seen, as well as lesions on petioles (leaf stems) and stolons. Infected plants may appear top-heavy, exhibiting a form of epinasty. These symptoms can vary in intensity.


Strawberry crinkle virus management

Since bees are so important to strawberry formation, insecticides are generally not an option against the aphids that carry this disease. Use these tips to prevent strawberry crinkle virus from impacting your strawberry crop:

• only install certified disease-free plants
• place new plants in quarantine
• monitor for aphids and wipe or spray them off with a garden hose
• remove infected plants completely and immediately

Hopefully, your strawberry plants will never become infected with the crinkle virus. Until we figure out a sustainable way to get rid of aphids, well, be on the lookout.

Avocado lace bug lifecycle 

Yes. That’s what I said. Poop. Female avocado lace bugs lay their eggs and then smear the area with a sticky, tar-like substance that looks like poop. Under that protective layer, nymphs molt 5 times as they grow before emerging as adults. Avocado lace bugs have several generations each year and all developmental stages can be present at any one time.


Avocado lace bug damage

Avocado lace bugs are sap suckers. As such, they pierce the underside of leaves and siphon away nutrient rich fluids. This feeding, while trivial in small numbers, can cause stippling. As feeding progresses, other symptoms appear, such as leaf tip burn that looks like salt damage, leaf discoloration, and early leaf drop. Large infestations can result in defoliation, sunburn damage, and reduced fruit production.


As in any case where plant cells are pierced, this feeding also provides points of entry for fungal diseases, such as anthracnose.


Avocado lace bug control

Natural predators should keep avocado lace bug populations in check. These beneficial insects include jumping spiders, lacewing larvae, lady beetles, and predatory mites and thrips, as well as parasitic wasps.


If avocado lace bug populations reach troublesome numbers, keep your trees healthy with a thick layer of mulch, good drainage, and regular irrigation. Insecticidal soaps are somewhat helpful against avocado lace bugs.


Be on the lookout for this pest. If you suspect your tree is hosting avocado lace bugs, contact your local County Extension Office right away. As always, place new plants and bare root trees in quarantine before adding them to your garden.

Damage caused by Uhler’s stink bugs

Uhler’s stink bugs eat fruit by piercing the surface and sucking out the sugary sweet juice. At first, those feeding spots may look like tiny, translucent blue-green dimples. If you cut into the fruit, you will see the fruit has turned into grayish white pithy tissue that doesn’t look the least bit appetizing. These pests can also transmit tomato bacterial spot and create points of entry for other pests and diseases.


Uhler’s stink bug controls

Insecticides are ineffective against stink bugs, but that may be a good thing. Instead of spraying chemicals that kill off beneficial insects, a healthy, biodiverse garden will likely be home to assassin bugs, parasitic wasps and flies, such as the tachinid fly (Trichopoda pennipes) and the Trissolcus basalis wasp, which will parasitize stink bug eggs. Birds, spiders, toads, and other insect eating critters will also help keep stink bug populations down.


Your best stink bug management program simply involves walking around and looking for them, hand-picking them and depositing them in a container of soapy water or feeding them to your chickens. You may have to be quick, as stink bugs tend to scramble to the opposite side of a twig or branch if they sense someone is looking for them. You will need to monitor for stink bugs from the time buds emerge until the end of the harvest season.


These pests are often found overwintering in common mullein, curly dock, and Russian thistle. If stink bugs have been a serious pest in the past, pull mulch away from fruit trees before green fruit appear. After the harvest, simply push the mulch back into place.