Beetles, Flea Beetles

Timely Viticulture is an electronic newsletter designed to remind grape producers of seasonal vineyard needs and considerations throughout the year.

IPM Threshold Guide for Agronomic Field Crops

The previous “Timely Viticulture” addressed some basic information on MALB and this message will concentrate on management tactics. Some sections of this message were intentionally repeated, but there is new information throughout.

Fruit and Vegetable News, Volume 13, Issue 1 (April, 2022). Topic in this issue are: Check for Allium leaf miner in onions and leeks over the next few weeks, Edema problem in high tunnel tomatoes, Using Plant Growth Regulators to Improve Apple Return Bloom, Botryis Fruit Rot (Gray Mold) and Crown Rot in Strawberries, Spring Pest Scouting in Strawberries, and Early Spring Vegetable Insect Scouting Tips.

Grape Flea beetles, Altica spp. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), are small (4-5 mm), oval shaped, metallic blue-purple beetles that jump when disturbed.

Insect Pest Management in Peppers

Insect Pests of Tomato

Potato production in Maryland continues to grow and has more than doubled in the last 5 years, while in surrounding states it has declined. About 50% of the potatoes harvested in Maryland are for the fresh market while the other half goes for processing. Because of its value growers frequently apply pesticides too often in order to protect their investment. This often leads to the development of insect resistance, environmental contamination, worker and food safety concerns and poor management of pests.

I visited a few tomato fields this week and found 2-4-week-old tomato plants with some early blight (Alternaria solani) and in some cases bad early blight lesions. This is very early in the season to be seeing this level of early blight. Many of the plants had a few flea beetle adults on the plant (fig 1) and in the areas where the early blight was found also had moderate to high flea beetle feeding (fig 2).

Normally at this time of year when I talk about any insect problems in crucifers I talk about harlequin bugs that feed by sucking out plant juices and inject toxins into the plant. But I have seen several fields and even some high tunnels with blister beetles feeding and defoliating several different vegetables such as tomato (including the fruit), leafy greens, crucifers, spinach and especially swiss chard (fig. 1). Blister beetles begin feeding on the edges of leaves eventually leaving only stems (fig. 1). The presence of blister beetles now is not unusual as they are often found in large clusters in late summer-early fall. They can arrive in large groups, seemingly overnight and can do a great deal of damage in a short period of time.