Pest identification is the first step in following an Integrated Pest Management, or IPM program.
One of the most common beetles found on asparagus, this pest is the most injurious. The beetle is 1/4 inch long, with a bluish head, reddish neck and dark blue wings with yellow spots. When caught, they produce a characteristic squeaking noise.
The bean seed maggot damages the seeds and seedlings of beans, corn, peas, and other vegetables. The full-grown maggot is white, 1/4 inch long and lacks a visible head. The adult fly is 1/4 inch long and resembles a housefly in color.
The black cutworm is blackish, fat, and up to 1 inch long. They attack the transplants and seedlings of tomatos, corn, beans and other vegetables and flowers.
The cabbage maggot is a common and destructive pest of many vegetables. The fly is about 1/4 inch long, dark gray, and thickly covered with black bristles. Among common vegetables frequently and extensively damaged are cauliflower, cabbage, radish, and turnip.
The corn earworm is a major pest of many field and vegetable crops. Earworms are variable in color but develop distinct longitudinal white or cream-colored bands as they mature.
The corn flea beetle is a small, 1/4 inch, black jumping leaf beetle with a portion of the hind leg greatly enlarged. During the feeding process, beetles transmit bacteria to corn which causes Stewart’s wilt.
The Colorado Potato Beetle is an important pest of tomatoes and eggplants in the mid-Atlantic area. The adult beetle is stout, oval, about 3/8 inch long and has yellow wing covers with black stripes.
The European corn borer is one of the five most important vegetable pests in Pennsylvania. The full-grown borer is 3/4 to 1 inch long, light brown with two conspicuous small round, brown spots on the back of each abdominal segment, and the head is dark brown to black.
Adults are 1 1/2 inch long and have elongated hind legs for jumping. Both the nymphs and the adults eat the leaf margins and chew holes in the leaves of rhubarb, potato, cabbage, broccoli, iris, daisy, sunflower and other vegetables and flowers.
