Insects and pests Oregon Floriculture CDE Vale Style

1. Aphids

APHIDS Small (up to ¼”) soft- bodied insects. The characteristic feature that distinguishes aphids from other insects are the “tail pipes” (called cornicles) which extend from the rear of their abdomen.

Aphids Aphids, or plant lice, are small, soft- bodied, pear shaped insects which are commonly found on nearly all indoor and outdoor plants, as well as vegetables, field crops, and fruit trees. There are hundreds of different species of aphids. Some of them feed only one host plant, while others will feed on many other plants. Most aphids are about 1/10 inch long, and although most of them are green or black, they may be gray, brown, pink, red, yellow, or lavender. A characteristic common to all aphids is the presence of two tubes, called cornices, on the back ends of their bodies, sort of like "tailpipes".

Aphids

2. Leaf Hopper

Leafhopper Leafhoppers are one of the largest families of plant-feeding insects. There are more leafhopper species worldwide than all species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians combined. Leafhoppers feed by sucking the sap of vascular plants, and are found almost anywhere such plants occur, from tropical rainforests, to arctic tundra. Several leafhopper species are important agricultural pests.

3. Leaf Miner

LEAF MINER Insect larvae that feed inside a leaf, between the upper and lower surfaces.

Leaf Miner Leaf miners form a natural rather than a taxonomic group of insect species that are adapted to a special type of environment. Definition: A leaf miner is a species, the larva of which lives and feeds for a part of all of its time between the epidermal layers of a leaf. The mining insects have habits that grade into gall making and deeper plant boring as well as external feeders and scavengers. There is little difference between a borer and a miner except that the borer feeds deeper in the tissues of plant.

Leaf Miner Damage

Leaf Miner Larva

4. Mealy bugs

MEALY BUG Mealybugs derive their name from the white, waxy, mealy secretions that cover their bodies.

Mealy Bugs MEALYBUGS - Mealybugs make up a variety of genera consisting of sucking insects that are often covered by a powdery coating of wax. Male mealybugs are tiny, gnat-like insects. Females are usually oval, flattened, wingless and coated in white, wax hairs. They can be found on many different hosts and on all parts of plants. Use of beneficial insects is a popular method of mealybug control in greenhouses. Insecticidal soap is a suitable treatment method if there is only small number of infested plants.Insecticidal soap

Mealy Bugs

Mealy Bug

5. Scale

SCALE Either soft scales or armored scales Covered with waxy shell for most of their life which protects them from predators or insecticides

Scale Insects Scale insects suck the fluids from your plants' leaves and stems, robbing them of essential nutrients. Leaves wither and yellow and may drop from the plant. Indoors, scale insects thrive in the warm, dry environment and may produce up to six new generations on houseplants each year.

Scale

6. Slugs

SLUG Slugs are gastropod mollusks without shells or with very small internal shells, in contrast to snails.gastropod molluskssnails

Slugs Slugs carry no shell. The most common slug, the Large Red Slug, comes in as many colors as the Garden Snails do. It is sometimes red or orange, but can be white, yellow, brown or black as well. You can easily recognize the Large Red Slug thanks to the rim between the body and the foot. The rim is red- orange independent of the color of the rest of the body. This rule only applies to the adults. The juveniles however lack the orange rim, but may have a beautiful black head instead. They slug may grow to be some 15 centimeters long!

7. Snails

Snails Left you see the best known snail: the Garden Snail. But did you know there are actually two species? The only way to tell them apart is by looking at their lipp (the opening of the shell). In one species the lipp has a light band and therefore the animal is called the White-lipped Snail. In the other species this band is brownish or black. This species is thus called... the Brown- lipped Snail. Both species can have exactly the same colors and both come in yellow, pink, brown and all shades of these colors. Their shells are identical as well, so only the color of the lip gives them away.

8. Spider Mites

SPIDER MITE To the naked eye, spider mites look like tiny moving dots Adults have eight legs and an oval body, with two red eyespots near the head end of the body.

Spider Mites Spider mites are common pest problems on many plants around yards and gardens in Colorado. Injury is caused as they feed, bruising the cells with their small, whiplike mouthparts and ingesting the sap. Damaged areas typically appear marked with many small, light flecks, giving the plant a somewhat speckled appearance.

Spider Mite

Spider Mites

Spider Mite

9. Spittle Bugs

Spittle Bug There are 23,000 species of spittle bugs, but you may not have ever seen one because of the unusual way that they protect themselves. They actually produce a liquid that they whip up into a mass of bubbles, and then they hide in it! This mass of bubbles is called "spittle" and is where the insect gets its name. Check it out in the photo above. Most of the time the spittle bugs are completely hidden inside the spittle.

10.White Flies

WHITEFLY Adults are less than 1/8” long and, like their name suggests, have white wings with pale yellow bodies. Adult whiteflies congregate above and under leaf surfaces, and disperse in clouds when disturbed.

Whiteflies Whiteflies are small, 1/16 inch long, white, winged insects that suck sap from leaves of various plants including house plants, garden flowers, vegetables and weeds. The leaves of ingested plants may turn yellow, be twisted or stunted, wither and drop prematurely. Leaves also may be sticky with honeydew, a sugary solution excreted by the whiteflies. Sometimes a black fungus called sooty mold develops on the honeydew, and adds to the plant's problem by blocking out light and interfering with photosynthesis.

Whitefly

11. Thrips

THRIP Thrips are small (~1/8” long) and narrow- bodied insects commonly found feeding on leaves and stems. The presence of thrips gives a splotchy appearance to leaves.

Thrips

12. Fungus Knats

FUNGUS GNATS Adult fungus gnats are about 1/8 to 1/10 inch (2.5 mm) long, grayish to black, slender, mosquito-like, and delicate with long legs, antennae and one pair of wings.

Fungus Gnat