Lygus is a genus of insects within the family Miridae (Order: Hemiptera, piercing-sucking true bugs) that often feed on common horticultural crops. These small insects have rather large eyes, heavily patterned, neutrally colored wings, and long spindly antennae. The diet of Lygus bugs, as they are colloquially called, is incredibly diverse ranging from cotton and[Read More…]
Insect Management
Dear readers, I have never been so excited to sort through trap catch from spotted-wing drosophila (SWD) monitoring traps (Figure 1A) as I have these last few weeks!! And it’s not just because I’m a bug nerd over here, ha! This season, as I’ve been looking through the contents of SWD jar traps, I’ve seen[Read More…]
I’m hearing that thrips are throwing many of us for a loop this season! Some of you may know that thrips do not overwinter here in Indiana, so each spring season they migrate up our way on winds blowing up from the south. Sometimes these southern winds occur earlier or later each spring, depending on[Read More…]
Hi fruit growers! Hopefully the season is going well for all of you. I am hearing from several folks that fruit development is ahead of where it was this time last year, and maybe that’s why I’m also getting a lot of questions about ‘unusual’ damage to the leaves and fruits of caneberries, apples, and[Read More…]
Many readers will remember when a massive brood of periodical cicadas (Brood X) emerged throughout Indiana back in 2021. With their dark bodies, red eyes, and orange wings, these insects look like something straight out of the X-files, am I right?? There was lots of noise (male cicadas singing for the females!), lots of cast[Read More…]
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN! We are happy to announce that Purdue Extension is presenting its annual Fruit and Vegetable Field Day on July 18, 2024, at the Throckmorton/Meigs Horticulture Farm, Lafayette, IN. Register here: Purdue Fruit and Vegetable Field Day Contact Lori Jolly-Brown or Petrus Langenhoven if you have any questions. Presentations: Julia Wooby, Ian Kaplan, Laura Ingwell Trap Crop[Read More…]
San Jose scale attacks all the delicious fruit trees: apple, peach, pear, and plum. Some of you may already know that this insect is particularly difficult to manage, because most life stages are very small, even tiny, so they are not obvious until there are lots of them! In fact, you’re going to need a[Read More…]
As we head into the strawberry season, I anticipate more questions from growers when it comes to pests that directly damage the fruit. One that was reported recently was the Strawberry sap beetle. This beetle belongs to the family Nitidulidae, which are broadly referred to as sap or picnic beetles. The Strawberry sap beetle overwinters[Read More…]
Removing overwintering leaves on plasticulture strawberries in the early spring is a time-consuming and labor-intensive job. I was asked whether the effort is worthwhile. I want to share my observation that confirms it is worth the effort. We conducted a comparative study on second-year plasticulture strawberries at Southwest Purdue Ag Center in Vincennes, IN. In[Read More…]
Each spring, I know some of you may be using insect-pest monitoring traps for the first time, whether it’s in your orchard or backyard! It’s exciting to have these tools – they do the work for you, luring insects into a single location so you don’t have to guess when pests might appear. Moreover, you[Read More…]