- Author: Anne E Schellman
Pomegranate trees are often used in gardens and landscapes in Stanislaus County. They make a great tree and usually have relatively few problems. Recently, someone contacted the Master Gardener help line to describe some odd-looking insects she found on her tree, so we asked her to send a few photos.
The insects are called leaffooted plant bugs. They use piercing-sucking mouthparts to feed on fruits, nuts, and ornamental plants. When they attack pomegranates, their feeding may cause the seeds inside to darken and wither. Large groupings of the bugs can leave behind an unattractive excrement on the fruit, although it is still safe to eat.
Adults overwinter in large groups this time of year, so we advised our caller to take a bucket of soapy water out to her tree and to brush the leaffooted bugs into it. This would help decrease the population before the adults could lay more eggs in spring. (up to 200!) We were impressed the caller was able to find the eggs and capture this image. Can you find them on this pomegranate twig below?
For more life cycle and management information, read the UC IPM Pest Notes: Leaffooted Bug. And remember, if you have a gardening or pest management question, you can call our help line at (209) 525-6802 or send us an email at ucmgstanislaus@ucanr.edu
- Author: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
#GivingTuesday is November 27! Want to know how you can support the work we do here at the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program to help you understand and control pests around your home and landscape?
Your gift will further UC IPM's mission to help California residents, growers, land managers and other professional pest managers prevent and solve pest problems with minimal impact on people and the environment by developing and promoting the use of integrated and ecologically sound pest management programs.
Did we say someone would eat a bug?
UC IPM Director Jim Farrar has committed to eating a pest (maybe an insect-- we don't know yet) if at least 20 people make a donation of $10 or more to UC IPM. With your donation and Jim's appetite, there will be one less pest to deal with! Spread the word to colleagues, family and friends to help UC IPM meet this goal. All UC IPM donors will be invited to the special pest eating event which will take place in the afternoon on Wednesday Nov. 28 in the UC ANR building in Davis!
Please donate today! And thank you for all your support!
/span>![Giving Tuesday UC IPM Giving Tuesday UC IPM](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/56657.png)
Advice for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Client's Request (visiting at the MG/Ag Office at 2380 Bisso Ln, Concord): I found these insects (see below) inside my house in my closet. A friend of mine thought they might be “kissing bugs”. Would you please identify them, what their presence and problems they might cause, and recommend what I should do about them?
The common name of the insects you brought in is the leafhopper assassin bug. Scientific name is Zelus renardi. The leafhopper assassin bug is considered a beneficial insect in that it feeds on other insects, including pests such as caterpillars of the cabageworm butterfly, leafhoppers, and aphids. Here is a link to some University of California information about the insect: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/NE/assassin_bugs.html
When you were in our offices, you said you hoped that the insects were not “kissing bugs”. You might be interested to learn that assassin bugs and kissing bugs are closely related in that they belong to the same insect family—the Reduviidae family. Apparently, assassin bugs are often confused with kissing bugs. The feeding habits of the two insect lines are quite different--kissing bugs feed on the blood of mammals (including humans). Here is a link to UC's information on the kissing bug side of the family: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7455.html
You might be interested in reading this blog article which talks about the differences between assassin bugs like the ones you found and the kissing bugs: https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=24611
It's hard to know how one of the assassin bugs found its way into your closet. I wonder if perhaps it flew in through a window or door and somehow made its way to your closet. In doing my research I found this story on the website for the Marin/Sonoma Mosquito/Vector Control District: https://www.msmosquito.com/the-bug-blog/2012/03/leafhopper-assassin-bug. It describes an encounter a citizen had with an assassin bug that had somehow found its way into the citizen's bed. As described in the link, the assassin bug can inflict a painful bite if they encounter a threat, but they don't seek to bite humans or other mammals.
Since I have determined that your insects are “beneficial” predators, I'll take them home and release them in my vegetable garden area. Since assassin bugs are not typically pests, you probably don't need to take any action. If you should find others in your house, you might want to be careful about leaving doors or windows open which could allow them a way into the house.
Hope this information is helpful. If you have other questions, you are welcome to contact our Help Desk. We're open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon and are also here to support the Ag Dept on Thursday afternoons. You are welcome to stop by or you can phone us or email us to save yourself a drive.
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (TKL)
Note: UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available almost year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays (e.g., last 2 weeks December), we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 2380 Bisso Lane, Concord, CA 94520. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 608-6683, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/. MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (//ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/)
Yesterday we posted an “Easter egg hunt” challenge, and as promised, here are the adult insects and spiders with their matching eggs or egg cases pictured. How did you do?
We welcome your feedback, so please sign in and post a comment below to tell us if the egg hunt was easy or difficult, and how many answers you guessed correctly. Or, you can write us a note about the challenge on our UC IPM Urban/Community Facebook page.
Now for the answers:
A. Harlequin bugs are colorful insect pests that cause damage when they suck fluids from plant tissue. Heavy infestations may cause plants to wilt, turn brown and die. Their eggs are drum-shaped and often brightly colored.
B. Leaffooted bugs are odd-looking insect pests with piercing-sucking mouthparts. Their feeding produces destructive damage on the fruit or plants they attach. Eggs of leaffooted bugs are brown, cylindrical, and laid end-to-end in a string-like strand.
C. Tomato hornworm moths are large, sometimes with a wingspan of up to 5 inches! The larva or caterpillar of this pest is well-known and causes damage to plants, while adult moths do not. Hornworm eggs are laid singly on leaves and are not easy to see.
D. Female black widow spiders are feared by many people since they are poisonous and may bite. However, these shy spiders prefer to hide in holes and crevices and within clutter outdoors. Their egg sacs look like fluffy cotton balls and may have 300 eggs inside.
E. Cockroaches give off allergens that lead to asthma and can also transmit bacteria that causes food poisoning. The species pictured, the American cockroach, are common outdoor pests and are about two inches long, and their egg cases each contain about 12 young. A female cockroach can produce over 800 cockroaches in one year! To learn more about cockroaches, visit the UC IPM Pest Notes: Cockroaches.
F. Green lacewings are beneficial insects often spotted hovering around porch lights at night. Some adults are predaceous, while others feed on honeydew, nectar, and pollen. Their eggs are laid singly on long silken stalks attached to plant tissue, sometimes in small groups.
G. Convergent lady beetles (often called lady bugs) are beneficial insects that eat some plant pests, especially aphids. The eggs of this species are bright yellow, football shaped, and laid in clusters. Eggs of other lady beetle species have similar shapes but may be white, beige, or lighter in color.
H. Bed bugs are highly reviled pests, and yet many people don't realize that bed bugs and their eggs are not microscopic, and can be seen with the naked eye! Watch the IPM video “Don't bring bed bugs home when you travel” to learn how to avoid introducing this pest into your home after a trip.
I. Brown widow spiders are an invasive species related to black widows, but their bite is much milder than that of the black widow spider. The egg sacs of brown widow spiders resemble large grains of pollen.
J. Praying mantid adults may be green, yellow, or brown and feed on many kinds of insects, sometimes even beneficial ones; however, they are still important predators in the garden. Praying mantid egg cases can contain dozens to hundreds of eggs. Egg cases are usually stuck to wood, fences, tree bark, or other plant material.
K. Assassin bugs are colorful beneficial insect predators that stalk or lie in wait for their prey. They have a segmented, needle-like beak. There are many species of assassin bugs but the eggs of the leafhopper assassin bug (adult and eggs pictured here) are barrel-shaped and laid openly in groups on plant surfaces.
L. Head lice – simply reading the name of this pest may cause you to begin itching your scalp! Sometimes people use unnecessary chemicals to rid themselves or their family of this pest. These choices may be dangerous as well as ineffective. Read about less toxic options in the UC IPM Pest Notes: Head Lice.
M. Mosquitoes are pests to watch out for since some species are capable of transmitting diseases. The mosquito pictured here may transmit West Nile Virus; its eggs are laid in batches that float in “rafts.”
N. Katydids are related to grasshoppers but have wings that resemble leaves. In their immature, or nymphal stage, they can damage fruit causing fruit to become misshapen. Katydid eggs are found on twigs and leaves in two overlapping rows.
- Author: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
If you've noticed some odd-looking bugs in your garden or landscape recently, you might be seeing leaffooted bugs. These medium to large sized insects feed on tomatoes, pomegrantes, and certain nuts and ornamental plants.
Adult females can lay over 200 eggs during a two-month period during spring. The eggs hatch and the nymphs emerge and can be found together with the adults. During spring and summer, there can be two to three generations of leaffooted bugs in your landscape!
In spring, leaffooted plant bugs often feed on thistles and other weeds. When fruits start to ripen, adults migrate into gardens and landscapes and can be found feeding on tomatoes, pomegranates, and citrus as well as ornamental shrubs.
In fall, the adults may be found in protected areas like woodpiles, buildings, palm fronds, citrus or juniper trees, under peeling bark, or in tree cracks.
The leaffooted bug sucks plant juices from leaves, shoots and fruit. For most ornamental plants, the feeding causes no visible damage. However, when the bugs feed on fruit, they cause a variety of problems depending on the fruit.
To learn what to do about leaffooted bugs, visit the UC IPM Pest Notes: Leaffooted Bug.
![Adult leaffooted bug, Leptoglossus zonatus. [D. R. Haviland] Adult leaffooted bug, Leptoglossus zonatus. [D. R. Haviland]](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/46765.jpg)
![Nymphs of leaffooted bug, Leptoglossus sp., on tomato. [R.Ostroff] Nymphs of leaffooted bug, Leptoglossus sp., on tomato. [R.Ostroff]](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/46766.jpg)