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Soil, Compost & Mulch

Leaf Footed Bugs HALP!

15 years ago

Well it's the time of year that I start the fight against the stink bugs. I particularly have serious leaf footed bug problems. Any ideas on controlling these pests? I understand that Sabadilla (Red Devil) dust is a good control, but have scoured the net, and everywhere locally for it, to no avail. They seem to really like tomato's even my citrus trees! Thanks in advance.

Jerry

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Comments (4)

PKponder TX Z7B
15 years ago
I found an article from TAMU suggesting some controls.

Pam

Here is a link that might be useful: Leaffooted Bug controls
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Kimmsr
15 years ago
The Leaf Footed bug family is a fairly large group that includes the Squash Bug, Stink Bug, Box Elder Bug, and others. Some are predators of other, more destructive, insects while others are simply destructive in their own right, and some are fairly innocuous . Controls are similar to those used for Squash Bugs and Stink Bugs, when necesary. Floating row covers, hand picking, searching for egg masses and squishing those found, Insecticidal Soaps, Neem oil Sprays, and as a last resort pyrethrin dusts or sprays.
Since there are many predators of these pests using the broad spectrum sprays suggested in the link above will kill off any of those predators making the problem even greater.
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Sevin is not an accetable product to discuss or mention on an organic gardening forum. Yes it will kill the leaf footed bugs you have as well as all the others, maybe including yourself, since it is a very broad spectrum poison. Whether you actually need to control them or not depends on which ones you have since some of the leaf footed bugs are predators, not pests, but insecticidal soaps do help when control is necessary, as to nets to cover the plants to keep insects from the fruits. There are tons of other ways to control any pest you may have other than these very broad spectrum poisons.
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I think hand picking or vacuuming adults, planting beneficial-insect-attracting flowers, and using row covers on the grow beds are your best options for control. The following methods of control are quoted directly from "The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control" CONTROL METHODS: Squash Bugs - Maintain vigorous plant growth; handpick all stages of squash bugs from undersides of leaves; support vines off the ground on trellises; attract native parasitic flies with pollen and nectar plants; cover plants with a floating row cover (you'll need to hand-pollinate flowers. Stink Bugs - Control weeds in susceptible crops; remove or mow weedy areas adjacent to garden beds; attract native parasitic wasps and flies by planting small-flowered plants. As a last resort, dust with pyrethrin.
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If everyone tossed the tomatoes that had been snacked on by those insects, we'd never get to eat any! However, the soybean field would worry me.
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I hear ya! I've started considering them the enemy! I guess Ike took out a lot of vegetation that they were feeding on because after the storm.... my tomatoes are covered in these things! I try to catch as many as possible and step on them but when there is a cluster of more than 10 on each tomato, it's hard to catch them all.
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jerrytx
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks Pam! I have been plagued by these critters for the last several years. I have put a row cover over the tomato's, hope this helps!(what respectable creature trys to eat citrus?)
Jerry
p.s. sorry for listing this in the wrong place folks!
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jean001
15 years ago
During the fall, the leaf-footed bugs and certain other insects, among them the Asian lady beetles, hang out on the sides of structures.

The time when they are garden pests is during the active growing season. But now -- fall and winter -- they are considered nuisance pests, only. In general, pesticides do little if anything because the insects aren't feeding nor are they breeding.

That said, insecticidal soap can knock them down. And a wet/dry shop vac, with some slightly soapy water in it, can suck them up so that they drawn.

Typically, these critters arrive at the same time each fall. So jot the date on a calender and NEXT year, schedule a pest control company to spray the side of the structure where they congregate a WEEK prior to the bugs' expected arrival.

The spray won't kill them but will repel them.

The reason they return yearly is that the previous year's crew put pheromones on the wall which, in effect, tell next year's bugs that "this is a good place to spend the winter."
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