Whiteflies-Pest Diagnostic Clinic (left), Whiteflies-Clemson University (right)

Description:
There are several different species including greenhouse whiteflies, silverleaf whiteflies and sweetpotato whiteflies. They occur worldwide and move onto other crops and plants when their food source runs low. They go from egg to larvae to adult very rapidly.

Whitefly Life Cycle-Dept. of Entomology NCSU (left), Whitfly Eggs-Oregan State University

Whitefly damage-College of Agricultural and Human Resources (left), Whitefly damage-Top Turf Insect Damage (right)

Diet and Damage
Host plants include strawberries, house plants, greenhouse plants, vegetables and some ornamentals. Whiteflies are sucking insects and excrete honeydew which can cause a secondary problem…..sooty mold. They cause plants to become weak and plants die from lack of photosynthesis once sooty mold sets in. They are very difficult to control and over the years have developed immunity from some inorganic pesticides.

Biological Controls

1. Plant Guardian^TM Houseplant Insecticidal Soap – use on the underside of leaves as this is where you’ll find them.
2. Pyola^® Insect Spray
   – a plant based organic pesticide that comes in a liquid or powder. The liquid type needs to be diluted with water and then sprayed directly on the affected plants. It also kills a wide range of insects, caterpillars and beetles.
3. Pot Stickers – you can buy these or make your own with bright yellow card coated with a sticky substance like tanglefoot.
4. Rubbing Alcohol – dilute alcohol in water and wipe the undersides of the leaves.
5. Beneficial Insects - ladybugs, lacewings, pirate bugs, spiders and tiny parasitic wasps.
6. Your Trusty Vaccuum Cleaner – they can be sucked off your houseplants with it.

Adult Silverfish (L)-Do-it-yourself Pest Control, Adult Silverfish (R)-Integrated Pest Management of Alaska

Description
They are very quick when surprised, such as turning on a light or a sudden movement.

Habitat and Lifecycle
Silverfish are found worldwide, live in homes, vacant buildings, hospitals, attics, bathrooms and other places that are dark, warm and damp. During the day they are generally hiding in cracks, crevices, baseboards and behind furniture. As long as there is food they will continue to thrive. Unlike most insects having 4 lifestages, these guys only have 3. Males leave their sperm on fine silk threads and females then pick it up fertilizes her eggs. The females lay their eggs 1-4 per day and hatching occurs after 2-3 weeks. Egg to adult is approximately 4 months. They shed thier skins several times per year and can live up to 3 years. In their lifetime they can lay several hundred eggs.

Silverfish damage (L)-Home & Garden Information Center, Silverfish damage (R)-Clemson University

Diet and Damage
Thier main diet is high in protein and carbohydrates. This includes food stuffs, books, paper, wallpaper, attic insulation, cardboard, drywall, cotton clothing and many other household items. Indications of silverfish includes small irregular holes and also tiny yellow stains.

Control
1  Pot Stickers – you can buy these or make your own with bright yellow card coated with a sticky substance like tanglefoot. Sticky traps placed on the floor are very effective.
2 Reducing moisture in the home is the most important since they need dampness to survive. Using dehumidifiers in areas where silverfish are present will help reduce their numbers.
3 Silica Dioxide is a non-toxic dust that can be applied to baseboards and areas where they have been seen. This works by drying them out so they shrivel up and die.
4 Vaccuum regularily to keep the population at bay
5 Keeping moist debris out of the house is also good practice

Squash vine borer larva (left)-Alabama Farmers Cooperative Inc, Larvae (right)-Kansas State University

Description
The adult is clear-winged moth resembling a wasp. They are orange and black and have black stripes on their bodies.

Moth (left)-Kansas State University, Moth (right)-Ohio State University

Habitat & Lifecycle
These pest are found east of the rocky mountains in the US and Canada. They overwinter in a cocoon in the soil. Adult moths lay their eggs along the stems and the eggs are small and brown or reddish. Moths lay their eggs in early spring. There may be up to two generations per year depending on climate. A very cold winter can kill off many of the cocoons.

Lifecycle (left)-North Carolina State University, Damage from the squash vine borer (right)-Ohio State University

Diet & Damage
They bore into the stems of cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and other gourd type plants. You can see a small entry hole where the larvae go inside the stems to do the most damage. The vines will wilt and eventually die. You can tell if they are present since they leave a small mass of green debris just under the holes. Squash stalk borers are extremely hard to control. It is critical to stop them from entering the vine since once they are in there it is too late.

Control
1) Nema-Ject^TM Nematodes – Nematodes injected into the stems helps control theses worms. This method is convenient with container, greenhouse or house plants.
2) Floating Row Covers – In the spring when the plants are newly planted, use row covers so the moths cannot lay their eggs. If you use a row cover then you must pollinate the flowers by hand.
3) Hand Pick – Try to catch them in egg stage so you can kill them before major damage. If you see the holes, take a sharp knife and slit the stem to remove the worms. Bury the injured section of the plant. This will help the injured section to reroot.
4) Crop Rotation – Rotate your crops from year to year and plant the cucurbits type plants far from where they were planted the previous year.
5) Plant Resistant Varieties – Butternut squash, acorn squash and some zuchinni varieties.

Crane fly adults-Natural Resources of Canada

Description
You’ve seen them fly around at night in swarms in the spring. The larvae are light brown or grey caterpillars that cause major damage. Adults do not feed. Eggs are very tiny and shiny black. Pupae are brown and spiney.

Larvae (right)-Natural Resources of Canada, Larvae (left)-Minnesota Department of Agriculture

Habitat and Lifecycle
They occur in great numbers in coastal wet climates and are found throughout North America and many European countries. There are almost 300 different species. Females lay their eggs in the summer in the soft soil (usually a damp area), eggs hatch within 2 weeks and the larvae feed from early fall throughout the winter and into the spring. They pupate and the adults emerge in the spring and mate immediately. There is usually only one generation per year.

Damage on roots of seedling trees (left)-Natural Resources of Canada, Damage on lawn-Minnesota Department of Agriculture

Diet and Damage
They destroy many seedlings including trees, lawns, pastures, weeds, potatoes, cereals, alfalfa, and many other forage crops. They are a terrible nursery pest. They feed on the roots, tubers and bark of seedlings. Most times damage is servere enough to kill the hosts. These guys are truly evil.

Control
1) Hand Pick – In the fall and in the spring lightly dig around the soil and pick them out. Look for them in marshy or moist areas. Flyswatters work well with the adults.
2) Control Moisture – Larvae like the moisture so good drainage practices is a must.
3) Natural Predators - Birds, parasitic nematodes and most ground beetles.
4) Sticky Traps – you can buy these or make your own with bright yellow card coated with a sticky substance like tanglefoot. They also can catch other pesky flying insects.
5) Maintain your lawn – Keep your grass at a minimum height since they like to hang around and lay eggs in high moist grassy areas. Good drainage is a must and your lawn must be healthy, so try a slow realease high nitrogen organic fertilizer.

Adult flour moth & Pupa (left)-Alameda County Community Developement Agency, Adult Moth (right)-USDA Grain Marketing & Production Research Center

Description

Adult flour moths are approx. 2cm, brownish grey with a powdery substance on the wings. The larvae are very tiny and look like very small maggots. They are usually yellow or white with brown heads and measure around 1.5cm. Mediterranean flour moths resemble the indian flour moth and are very similar in appearance and their diet is basically the same. Indications you have them are finding the contents of cereal boxes clinging to the sides of the box in a mass of fine webs… or you find small, brownish moths flitting around inside your cupboard… or tiny cocoons and larvae in your dry goods like flour, pasta or beans.

Flour moth larvae (left)-USDA Grain Marketing & Production Research Center, Adult and larva (right)-Clemson University

Habitat and Lifecycle

Flour moths occur worldwide and are a particular pest in grain and flour mills. They can infest your pantry in no time if care is not taken. Control is extremely difficult. Female flour moths can lay 150-600 eggs at a time. They can hatch within 3 days at temperatures higher than 20 C (80 F) Eggs are laid in flour products and larvae feed and spin small loose webs. After feeding larvae pupate in the grains and emerge into adults. The lifecycle can be continuous year round.

Adults and larva-University of Missouri

Diet and Damage

Indian meal moths infest flour, bran, grains, all types of meal, cereals, pet food, livestock feed and other foodstuffs containing flour and grains. Adults do not feed and live only long enough to mate and reproduce. If you see any of them flying around a pet store, don’t even think of buying pet foods there and inform the owner. Once you have introduced them in your home, getting rid of them is extremely difficult.

Control Indian meal moths (a.k.a. “pantry moths” or “flour moths”)

1) Cupboard Moth Trap™ – I have successfully used Cupboard Moth Traps like thes. They work wherever food is stored. You put the cardboard traps in cabinets and pantries with food; they’re non-toxic and free of pesticides. The pheromone lure lasts for about 3 months. When the trap is covered with dead moths you just replace the trap with a new one. For light infestation you can also refresh the pheromone lure. They work great!
2) Clean out all your pantries and wipe very well with hot soapy water.
3) Line all the cracks and crevices inside the pantry with a sticky substance such as tanglefoot.
4) With a q-tip remove and destroy every larvae, egg and pupae that you find.
5) Use containers with tight fitting lids.
6) In summer months, store your cereals, grains and flour in the fridge to prevent an overpopulation.
7)Take all containers with the foodstuffs and place in the freezer for at least five days and then dispose of the foodstuff or feed it to your chickens, they love any kind of bugs.

Camel cricket (top left)-NCSU, Field cricket (top right)-University of California, House cricket (bottom)-University of Florida

Description
House crickets live primarily in your house but they are born outside and make their way in when they are small. House crickets are small (17mm) and brown with very large hind legs. Field crickets are relatively larger (up to 30mm) and are dark brown or black. Camel crickets are smaller (20mm), have a small humped back and are light to dark brown. Only males sing songs to attract females. Each species attracts only their own.

Lifecycle-MSU, student page

Habitat and Lifecycle
They are thought to be a native to Europe and are found in the Eastern United States and most of Canada. Because crickets are bred for pet food & fish bait, they can escape and live almost anywhere. Eggs are laid (200-300 at a time) in damp areas where there is peat moss, compost, litter and garbage. Eggs hatch in 2-3 months. Nymphs emerge and begin feeding right away. They can overwinter as adults, but mostly it is in the egg stage in even the coldest climates. Some species lay eggs in spring that hatch in May or June. They grow rapidly in the summertime when the daily temperatures are high.

Diet and Damage
They occasionally eat small seedlings but generally are not a problem in your garden unless their numbers are large. They can be beneficial as they do eat other bugs. Their diet is mostly dead bugs, some insect eggs, organic material, food, material, wallpaper, clothes and a host of other things in your home. Rarely damage is severe and sometimes control measures need to be implemented. Crickets mostly feed at night and hide in cracks and crevices in the day.

Control
1) Sticky Traps – you can buy these or make your own with bright yellow card coated with a sticky substance like tanglefoot.
Remove debris and other wastes from the perimeter of your house. seal all cracks and areas around your foundation to prevent them from getting inside.
3) Predators – Birds, large spiders, toads, frogs and bats are predators. Put up a bat house on your garage or barn to attract them. (if you have a cat like mine, you don’t need anything else lol)
4) Stomp Method – The stomp method works best.
2) Garden Cleanup – Sticky traps can be made with pieces of wood and placed near foundations of your home or garage
5) Homemade Traps – Place a pan of apple juice or beer on the floor in the evening and crickets will find it and drown
Don’t forget……you can always eat them

Leaf Miner Grub (left)-Bradley Hydroponics, Leaf Miner Larvae (right)-Virginia Cooperative Extension

Description
The adult is a small fly (most having a yellow spot on their back) that lays it’s eggs on the leaves and when they hatch, grubs work inside leaves eating the centres out. There are several different species. Each species named for the plant they attack….ie: Lilac leafminers, azalea leafminers, spinach leafminers, boxwood leafminers etc.

Adult fly-P. Parrella, University of California

Habitat and Lifecycle
Found everywhere in North America. Flies occur in early summer and lay eggs in holes that they pierce in leaves. Eggs hatch within 4 days and begin feeding. When they have completed feeding they drop to the ground and pupate. They overwinter in this stage.

Damage (top left)-Virginia Cooperative, Damage and larvae (top right)-Virginia Cooperative, Damage (bottom)-USDA, John A. Byers

Diet and Damage
They feed on beets, beans, tomatoes, swiss chard, spinach, celery, lilacs, most flowers and boxwood varieties. They have been known to feed on other delicate leafy veggies and some ornamental like azaleas. They cause unsightly yellowish blisters on the leaves of host plants in a very erractic many (they look like trails). There can be as many as half a dozen present per leaf in serious infestations. Fortunately these guys rarely do much damage unless….it’s your spinach or chard. This year I am experiencing an influx of these guys and they seem to be eating everything so perhaps this is a bad year for them.

Control
1) Pyola^® Insect Spray – a plant based organic pesticide that comes in a liquid or powder. The liquid type needs to be diluted with water and then sprayed directly on the affected plants. It also kills a wide range of insects, caterpillars and beetles. Spray insecticidal soap when you see the flies on leaves of plants. I’m not sure it works on the larvae inside the leaves but you never know.
2) Sticky Traps – you can buy these or make your own with bright yellow card coated with a sticky substance like tanglefoot. Put up sticky traps near plants where the flies appear or plants that have been attacked.
3) Till Around Susceptible Plants – If you till the areas where you have them you will uncover the larva and birds will greedily eat them or you can pick them up and drop in soapy water.
4) Parasitic Wasps – Hymenopterous (wasp) parasites are natural predators.
5) Plan Your Harvest – Harvest beets and other veggies earlier then you normally would to decrease loss of veggies and plant in different stages.
6) Hand Pick – If you see the trails, you can crush them between thumb and forefinger. Or you can remove the affected leaves and drop them in soapy water or burn.
7) Row CoversProtect you crops with row covers before the flies emerge.

Pillbug (left), Pillbugs on leaf (right)-University of Missouri-Columbia

Description 
They are grey, about 2cm long and have an armoured shell.

Sowbug (left), Sowbug (right)-J. kalisch

Lifecycle
There are one or two generations per year. The female carries her eggs in a pouch on her undersides for up to two months. when the young hatch they stay in the pouch for a while longer before they emerge. In the winter they become inactive and hide in dark moist places. They occasionally are active in places like greenhouses or your basement in the winter. They also can live up to 5 years.

Diet and Damage
You can find them feeding in abundance near or in your compost heap, around organic materials, rotted plants and fruit and generally moist rich organic soil. They are rarely a problem in your garden since their diet consists mostly of organic material, but they can cause major problems on your young seedlings and tender young roots. They will eat plants and roots and do most of this damage at night. They can also invade a moist dark basement. I know in the Pacific Northwest where climate is moist and cooler there is an overabundance of these guys and they can be pests. When I lived in the Pacific Northwest they were a nuisance in my strawberry patch as well as most of my ornamentals. I would gather them in pails and walk over to the graveyard and dump them there. the only place you really want these guys is in your compost if at all.

Control
1) Hand Pick
Collect them at night or when you see them in large masses and set them free somewhere else like the woods. If you want to kill them drop them in soapy water. You can even sweep them into a dust pan and dump them over the fence or somewhere else in your yard where there is ample organic material.
2) Make a Trap
Put rotted fruit under the plants they have been attacking and in the morning pick up the fruit with them on it and toss them far away.
3) Moisture Control
Try to minimize water usage and keep moist areas dryer. These guys tend to congregate in moist conditions.

Thrip larvae magnified

Description 
They are the sucking variety insect. The moth is only 2mm long and is light yellow to brown coloured. They have two pairs of hairy wings.

Adult Thrip (top left)-W.L. Sterling, Texas A&M University, Adult thrip (top right)-Integrated Pest Management, Lifecycle (bottom)-University of Vermont Entomology Department

Lifecycle
Thrips overwinter as larvae in discarded onion remanants, alfalfa and clover. They emerge in the spring to become moths which then lay their eggs on host plants. They are so small that the wind may carry the larvae from garden to garden. In the feeding stage you will find them eating or rather see their damage first.

Thrips on onions (top left) & (top right)-Jack Kelly Clark, Damage on Onion (bottom)-Integrated Pest Management

Diet and Damage
Onions and garlic (Allium Family) are their favourites but they will also do serious harm to cole plants, parsley, curcubits, beans, lettuce and celery. I have also had them on my gladiolia as well, so they seem to like them too. They are a most destructive pest. If you see whitish blotches on your crop foilage then you know that you have this pest. They are so small you need to see them with a magnifying glass. Sometimes injury is so severe that that leaves curl upward. Plants will wilt and die. Onions will curl up and die. Very heavy rainfall can also help control this pest. Some farmers in Canada have had infestation so servere that they actually flood their fields to control thrips.

Control
1) Soap or Herbal Extract Sprays
At the very first sign of these guys spray your foilage well every few days. Wormwood, tansy, lavender or sage can be added to the soap spray. Boil them, strain and add this to your soap. It works quite well.
2) Full Garden Clean Up
Remove all garden debris, expecially onion skins. Thrips are attracted to debris in protected areas to overwinter. 3) Keep Weeds Down
Make sure weeds are not a problem on the outskirts of your garden. Thrips sometimes hide there or are blown from another garden.
4) Grow Healthy Plants
Weak plants are prime targets for the thrips to get started so try and make sure that all your plants have the necessary nutrients.
5) Yellow Sticky Traps
Make a few of these traps and place around your onions. With a small fan you can blow the thrips onto the traps.
6) Water
A hard spray of water will knock them off and drown them.

Grasshoppers (top left & right)-University of Wyoming, Grasshopper (bottom)-Texas A&M University

Description
They are the order orthoptera and there are hundreds of different species. Their larvae look the same as adults only considerably smaller. Their eggs are white to greyish coloured and laid in pods cemented together by dirt and debris. They can fly great distances and cover a vast amount of territory.

Eggs & Pods-University of Wyoming

Habitat and Lifecycle
They occur all over the world and are especially pest to farmers. Outbreak years occur after several years of hot dry summers and very warm autumns. This gives females a chance to lay as many as 400 eggs in a single season. They overwinter in the soil in protected pods that are resistant to most weather conditions. In the early spring the larvae hatch and begin to feed. Mating occurs in the summer and feeding lasts as long as weather conditions are favourable. Usually there is only one generation per year even tho peak years it feels like more.

Damage on corn-Marlin E. Rice

Diet and Damage
They attack every crop, veggie, weed, ornamental and trees. Nothing can resist them in a peak years. They eat notched holes in the leaves of anything they come accross. They will defoliate plants in no time. Some species prefer certain plants but in a grasshopper ridden area nothing is safe from them.
Control
1) Hand Pick
Most of the time capturing the adults is impossible but in the fall when you till your soil, pick out the egg pods and destroy them. Stomp method works well too.
2) Predators
Chickens, turkeys, larks, kestrels, starlings, lacewings, blister beetles, praying mantids, robber flies and bee flies.
3) Sticky traps
Sometimes applying tanglefoot to pinwheels and placing them near plants that are being attacked will catch the nymphs.
4) Row Covers or Screens
Place row covers or screens over plants that are being attacked, this will only work to keep them out.
5) Keep weed population down
Take all the weeds down around the perimeter of your garden to discourage egg laying.
6) Nolo Bait
Nolo baits is a trade name for the disease nosema locustae. It is usually mixed with wheat bran and spread about. It is not harmful to anything but grasshoppers. It will kill the nymphs and adults produce less eggs.
7) Bt
There is a special nematode on the market, mermis nigrescens, that is fairly reliable for nymphs.
Fungus
There is a naturally occurring fungus that kills adults, antomophthora grylli