Organic Insecticides | Organic Pesticides | EcoSMART Bug Spray

How to Kill Tarnished Plant Bugs

June 17th, 2009 Posted in Ornamental & Lawn Pests

The Tarnished Plant Bug prevents the growth of economically important vegetation.

While feeding on plant life, it is known to inject poisonous plant serum, kill fruit, and harm flowers.

Knowledge of the following information is essential to ridding produce and economic hosts from Tarnished Plant Bug infestation:

• Common habits of tarnished plant bugs
• Identifying tarnished plant bugs
• Killing tarnished plant bugs

What are the Common Habits of a Tarnished Plant Bug?

While the Tarnished Plant Bug feeds, it leaves distinctive evidence in its path. Common characteristics include poison injection punctures in the plant terminal, laying eggs and eating fruit.

These habits affect vegetation in the proceeding ways:

General Plant Structure

• Shoot distortion
• Yellow or mangled terminals
• Hindrance or halt in growth

Branches

• Bushing or increased number of limbs
• Leaf bronzing, spotting and crinkling

Fruit

• Catfacing, or deforming and scaring
• Holes usually left from the feeding period

How do I know if they’re Tarnished Plant Bugs?

If you identify with some of the above symptoms, correctly identifying your Tarnished Plant bug is the next step to eliminating an infestation.

Description

Knowing what the Tarnished Plant bug looks during each phase of its life cycle enables its extermination at any stage.

Phase 1: Egg

• Cream colored
• 1 mm long
• Ovipositioned in plant tissue or untamed grass
• Flourish in fruit
• Ability to hatch in at least 7 days

Phase 2: Nymph

• Similar to adults, but lack wings.
• Greenish
• Notice Black dots on thorax, in between wing pads and on abdomen

Phase 3: Adult

• Flat and oval
• ¼ in.
• Green/Brown with bits of red on the wings
• Overwinter, or hibernate, in bark, under leaves, and other sheltered places
• Begin feeding in the spring and continue throughout summer

How to kill Tarnished Plant Bugs

With damage and phase identified, utilize home remedies, insecticides, or a combination of both tactics to eliminate your Tarnished Plant Bug infestation.

Home Remedies

1. Weed Control. Cutting back the weed growth around vegetation destroys Tarnished plant bug overwintering and regular habitat areas, thus reducing their feeding ability.
2. Predators. Larger insects, such as ladybugs, spiders, and wasps partially reduce Tarnished Plant Bugs by naturally feeding on them.
3. Sticky Boards. Because Adult Tarnished Plant Bugs fly, hanging non-reflective sticky boards/ tape on trees or among shrubs catch them in flight.

Insecticides

While using, do not inhale the spray, or wear a protective mask. Protective gloves and goggles are recommended.

Always change clothes and wash with soap and water immediately after completing the job.

Some plants are sensitive to certain insecticides:

• Carbaryl may cause injury plants if they are wet when treated in high humidity.
• Carbaryl will cause severe injury to Boston ivy and Virginia creeper.
• Malathion is damaging to several ferns and eleagnus.

Do not feed treated vegetation to livestock as most formulas are toxic to animals.

Variations

1. Fruit Trees. Spray about 1 tbs. of Carbyrl 80S (SEVIN) when fruit is not pink.
2. Cotton Crops. Acephate, a foliar application, is the most commonly used cotton insecticide for Plant
3. Bugs. A 4-16 oz per acre spray is recommended. Other insecticides include chlorpyrofos and thiamethoxam.
4. Trees and Shrubs. To prevent the effects of “Bushing,” spraying malathion insecticide on larger plants is recommended.

Organic Insecticide

EcoSMART’s environmentally friendly organic control products are two-fold; they target infestations and do so in a way that keeps families safe. The Weed and Grass Killer and the Garden Insect Killer are registered under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Organic herbicides and insecticides attack the Tarnished Plant Bug and its habitat, without any threat to human, plant, or animal life.

Katie Mueller