Archive:Poplar/Tarnished Plant Bug
From Bugwoodwiki
From: Ostry, Michael E.; Wilson, Louis F.; McNabb, Harold S., Jr.; Moore, Lincoln M. 1988. A guide to insect, disease, and animal pests of poplars. Agric. Handb. 677. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture. 118 p.
Contents |
Importance
The adults and nymphs feed on young Populus stems and buds, causing lesions to form. Stems grow crooked or break over at the lesion. Injury is worst in clonal nurseries or where the 120 principal wild or agronomic hosts are abundant. Early harvesting of these crops may force insects onto Populus in search of food.
Look For:
• Lesions one-fourth inch to 2 inches long on the stems.
• Broken stems, bent over at a lesion.
• Small brownish plant bugs (less than one-fourth inch long) on the leaves or stems.
|
| Tarnished plant bug injury. |
Biology
In the spring, the adults emerge from overwintering in litter and move to the hosts to feed. Eggs are inserted into the soft tissues of growing shoots, buds, or other tissue. The adults and later the newly hatched nymphs feed on the tissues, and their toxic saliva causes lesions to form. Feeding occurs throughout the summer. As weather cools in autumn, the adults move to the leaf litter and overwinter.
Monitoring
Inspect whips and young trees in early summer for tarnished plant bugs and in midsummer for the lesions. Examine 50 to 100 of each clone in the nursery; if 15 percent of whips in any clone have lesions, apply treatment or plan to control the following year.
Control
• Spray heavily infested or injured clones with an insecticide recommended for plant bugs. Apply any time the bugs are present.
• Plant resistant clones.
• Do not plant susceptible clones next to corn, soybeans, or other agricultural crops that attract plant bugs.
• Salvage nursery stock by eliminating cuttings with lesions.
• Prune rooted cuttings below lesions before outplanting.
|
| Lesions caused by tarnished plant bug. |
|
| Young canker and blackenend bark of affected. |
For Additional Information:
Sapio, Frank J.; Wilson, Louis F.; Ostry, Michael E. 1982. A split-stem lesion on young hybrid Populus trees caused by the tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Hemiptera [Heteroptera]: Miridae). The Great Lakes Entomologist. 15: 237-246.
Wilson, Louis F.; Moore, Lincoln M. 1985. Vulnerability of hybrid Populus nursery stock to injury by the tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Hemiptera: Miridae). The Great Lakes Entomologist. 18: 19-23.
