Insect bad guys!

You’ll never look at a bug the same.

Anatomy

3 pairs=6 legs3 Body parts

Life Cycle-Insect Metamorphosis

• Complete– Egg– Larva (worms/catepillars)– Pupa (relatively dormnant)– Adult (flies, beetles, etc.)

• Incomplete– Egg– Nymph

• early-no wings• Late-wings developing

– Adult

*Insects must be killed when they are actively feeding or moving on the plant.

Complete Metamorphosis Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuPCu8lHC8I

Damage

• Damage depends on the type of mouthpart• Chewing-tear, chew or grind food• Sucking:

– Piercing: punctures plant and suck sap– Rasping: rasps or break surface and suck sap.

• Siphoning: have a coiled tube they dip into liquid food such as nectar and draw it in (ex. Butterfly)

• Sponging: have two sponge-like structures that collect liquid food and move it into the food canal. (ex. House fly)

Chewing- Beetles

• Eat leaves• Stems• Flowers• Fruits• Nuts

Beetles

Chewing- Cutworms

• Usually attacks stems• May eat other plants

Cutworms:  The larvae or caterpillars of some moths are called

cutworms (Agrotis, Amathes, Peridroma, Prodenia spp.) because of the manner in which they cut down young plants

as they feed.

Chewing- Caterpillars

• Larva• Moths• Butterflies• Fuzzy and hair• Eat young leaves and

stems• Roll up in leaves,

makes leaves curl

Caterpillars

Chewing- Grasshoppers

• Eat all parts of plants

Grasshopper

Sucking

• Puncturing the surface to take out the sap of a plant or other animal.

Sucking- Aphids

• Pierce and suck juices• Plant lice• Cause stunted growth,

yellow spotted leaves• Sticky substance and

black mold• Attracts ants

Aphids

Sucking- Leaf Bugs

• Causes plants to look unhealthy

• Lose normal color and wilt

Sucking- Mealy Bugs

• Pierce and suck from underside of leaves

• Suck in leaf axils• Causes yellow

appearance• Sticky secretions

Mealy bug

Sucking- Thrips

• Chews and then sucks• Causes plant tissue to

become speckled or whitened

• Leaf tip withers• Leaf curls and dies

Thrips

Sucking- Whiteflies

• Feeds on underside of young leaves

• Little flying white specks when plants are shaken

White flies

Sucking- Mites (Watch Out it isn’t an insect)

• Attack underside of leaf

• Causes leaves to turn gray to grayish

• Severe infestations cause webbing

• Insects can be red

Mites

cankerworms

Group classwork• Choose an insect from the list for your group.

(Beatles, cutworms, grasshoppers, caterpillars, aphids, leaf bugs, Mealy bugs, thrips, whiteflies,mites or cankerworms

• As a group research your insect. Determine:1. Mouthpart

2. Host(where does it live?)

3. Is it damaging or beneficial? How?

4. How would you get rid of it (damaging) or encourage it (beneficial)?

• Draw, color and label your insect on poster board. List neatly the information you found.

Pest Management• Integrated pest management (IPM) focuses on pest

prevention by identifying, preventing and monitoring pests with the least amount of danger to the environment.1. Identify the pest

2. Prevention by using methods such as crop rotation, pest resistant varieties and planting pest-free rootstock.

3. Monitoring new infestations can be the best controlled by early detections.

4. Traps may be used to check pest population.

5. If these methods are not affective, spraying of pesticides may be necessary.

• Lady beetles or lady bugs both adults and larva feed on soft bodied insects such as aphids, mites and eggs.

• Parasitic wasp attack caterpillar, butterfly or moth egg or pupa, beetle egg and other insects in the egg, larva or pupa stage.

• Praying mantis will eat just about any pest.• Green lacewig larvae are predators that feed

mainly on soft bodied insects.• Predatory mites will attack spider mites at any

stage of development inside a greenhouse or outside.

Biological controls