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Avocado
> Year-Round IPM Program > Other
Invertebrate Pests
Avocado
Other Invertebrates and Their Damage
Names link to more information
on identification and management.
Click on photos to enlarge
| Occasional
pests—Rarely
cause economic damage in avocado due to suppression by natural
enemies |
Armored scales
Identification tip: Tiny, circular, flattened, immobile scale covers encrusting
fruit surface. More commonly occur on leaves or twigs. |
Mealybugs
Identification tip: Blackish sooty mold, sticky honeydew, or
whitish wax from colonies of small, powdery insects. Effective natural enemies
usually control mealybugs in avocado. |
Soft scales
Identification tip: Blackish sooty mold, sticky honeydew,
or trails of ants on plants. Soft scales are blackish, brown, or orangish,
flattened-to-hemispherical insects.
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Whiteflies
Identification tip: Blackish sooty mold, sticky honeydew,
or trails of ants on plants. Adults are tiny, whitish insects. The immobile,
older nymphs vary distinctly by species, ranging from black to pale, translucent,
or covered with extensive whitish wax. |
| Pests
only when infesting young trees, not important on mature trees |
Branch and twig borer
Identification tip: Dead shoot with feeding pit at crotch.
Pit or hole in bark exuding sugary or white flaky sap, wind -broken branches
can also indicate tunneling by a pale larva of this dark, elongated beetle.
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Brown garden snail
Identification tip: Numerous irregular holes in leaves
or chewing along the edges. Shiny dry or wet, slimy trails may be evident
on plants or the ground from snails, which feed mostly at night and hide
during the day.
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False chinch bug
Identification tip: Shoots wither and die suddenly because
of feeding by small, grayish bugs, which suck sap from stems. |
Fuller rose beetle
Identification tip: Leaf margins, ragged, notched, or
serrated, usually on lower foliage, from nocturnal chewing by brownish
snout beetle or weevil.
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June beetles (scarabs)
Identification tip: Leaves and shoots chewed and young
trees defoliated. The cause of damage is not obvious since these stout
beetles feed at night. |
| Quarantined
pest—Not currently damaging in avocado, may require
treatment of nursery stock before young trees can be shipped. |
 Glassy-winged sharpshooter
Identification tip: Pale blister or brown scar in leaf from cluster of eggs laid by large, mostly dark brown to blackish leafhopper. Whitish sap exudate on plant if insect is abundant. Not currently a pest in avocado, except for nursery stock quarantines. May be a concern because it vectors Xylella diseases lethal to grapes and certain other crops if nearby. |
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