the strawberry sap beetle, Stelidota geminata. Strawberry sap beetles are small oval insects, less than 1/8 inch long. Early June bearing varieties can escape most tarnished plant bug injury because pest populations are small and consist of less damaging early instars. Various slug traps have been tried, including the stale beer trap. Adult Strawberry Seed Beetles are long and black. It will be necessary to spread plants and inspect the crowns as well as leaves and stems. Use a homemade spray made from garlic or hot pepper mixed with water to spray plants. Spittlebugs can be recognized by the white masses of wet foam or spittle on leaves, petioles, and stems. A red form of a two-spotted spider mite. When identifying these beetles an important feature is the presence of knobbed antenna which is common among all sap beetles. Colleen Vanderlinden is a freelance writer and the author of Edible Gardening for the Midwest. Because of the tell-tale slimy trails left on fruit surfaces, slug damage is easy to verify. Mites feed by piercing tissue with their mouthparts and extracting cell contents. ENTFACT-207: Common Strawberry Pests  |  Download PDF. The azalea lace bugs use their piercing mouthparts to suck the sap from the leaves. If you're seeing small, deep holes in the strawberry fruits, usually under the cap, chances are good that you're dealing with slugs. Slugs also leave tell-tale silvery slime trails that can often be seen on the foliage. Sprays for sap beetles are available but difficult to use because they are applied to a crop that is ready for harvest. Like most weevils, they have a pronounced curved snout. These blossoms will usually fall off or hang limply from the plants. In heavy infestations, leaves turn purple, with white webbing between leaves. Just be sure to check the trap each morning and remove any slugs you find, or they'll be right back to eating your strawberries again the next night. Although the spittle is harmless, pickers object to being wetted by the insect excretion. Sap beetles are drawn to fruit that is over-ripe. What Is a Weevil and How Did It Get in My Food? While the bugs aren't harmful to ingest, many people were so disgusted by the footage that have sworn off strawberries forever By Erica Tempesta … Spittlebug eggs overwinter in this garden material, and cleaning up will limit the number of eggs that can rewatch in the spring. The strawberry root weevil is black to light brown and 1/5 inch, the rough strawberry weevil chocolate brown and 1/4 inch, and the black vine weevil is black with small flecks of yellow on its back and 2/5 inch. Clean up fallen fruit from the ground, as decaying berries will attract sap beetles. Remove any infested buds, as well as any that have fallen to the ground, to prevent the insects from wintering over to infest another year's crop. There is only one generation per year. The strawberry fruit was mentioned in ancient Roman literature in reference to its medicinal use. There are no other organic insecticides that work well with bud weevils. University of Minnesota Extension. I like to eat the young strawberry spinach leaves raw in salads, so I prefer not to use any sort of spray to get rid of these tiny bugs. Two-spotted spider mites are common on many species of cultivated and weedy plants. These are best installed right at planting time. SWD larvae, tarnished plant bugs, strawberry seed bugs, and sap beetles feed directly on strawberry fruit. Departments & Units   /   The tiny green nymphs produce the spittle covering to protect themselves from predators and desiccation. Indiscriminate use of pesticides can create mite problems. and Consumer Services, Bugwood.org. The nymphs turn brown during the last instar. Use citrus rind traps. Slugs generally cause damage at night and are more problematic during damp weather. Remove leaves, mulch, and other plant debris from the area to eliminate hiding places and prevent slug damage. It is only the five or six rows bordering the apples and blackberries that have these sap beetles. Pesticides need to be selected which have little impact on natural enemies of mites. Extension   /   Root weevils overwinter in the soil as grubs that pupate in the spring. The damage to strawberries is caused by adult insects. The P… The grubs are white, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, and a characteristic "c" shape. Most frequently, prevention through cultural management, including incorporation of trickle irrigation, is suggested. Sprays should be applied only if absolutely necessary. Effective control of mites requires thorough coverage of the undersides of leaves. The pronotum is round near the head, but comes to a flat point on each side by the abdomen. They are brown mottled with yellow, bronze, or reddish marks and each forewing has a black tip with a yellow triangle. After hatching the larva has three pairs of legs, but later stages will have four pairs. More important to some producers, particularly u-pick growers, is the annoyance that spittle masses cause pickers. Use neem oil or a citrus-based insecticidal oil to prevent infestations. When the entire leaflet is covered, it appears purplish to reddish to brown. Apparently, soap or human hair placed in a mesh bag and hung on a tree branch at deer height will … Strawberry field research plots. 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