Cole Crops

Bagrada bug

Identification tips: Adults are 0.2–0.3 inch long and have black, shield-shaped bodies with distinct orange and white markings. Look for stippled or wilted areas on leaves and new shoots.

Beet armyworm

Identification tips: Adults lay their eggs in scale-covered cottony masses on leaf surfaces. Young larvae are dull green and tend to feed in small groups near the egg mass, skeletonizing leaves or completely consuming them. They can destroy seedlings and stunt growth by feeding on buds.

Bulb mites

Identification tips: Shiny, creamy-white, and bulb-shaped mites that look like tiny pearls with legs. Their size ranges from 0.5 to 1 mm. Bulb mites can attack germinating seedlings, deform their leaves, stunt their growth, and reduce stand density.

Cabbage aphid

Identification tips: These aphids are greenish-gray with a white, waxy coating. They commonly occur in dense colonies. Though they do not commonly damage seedlings, large colonies can stunt or kill small plants.

Cabbage looper

Cabbage maggot

Identification tips: Larvae are small, legless, white maggots usually less than 0.4 inch long that feed on roots. Adults are small, dark gray flies. Young plants are most susceptible.

Cutworms

Identification tips: Cutworm species vary in their appearance but are generally dull gray to brown caterpillars up to 2 inches long that blend in with soil. They commonly curl into a C-shape when disturbed. They clip off seedlings at the soil line or chew on leaves that touch the ground.

Cricket

Identification tip: Adult crickets are black or brown and are about 0.5 to 1 inch long. They can damage seedlings.

Darkling beetles

Identification tips: Adults are dull bluish-black or brown beetles that chew off seedlings or feed on foliage. Be careful to distinguish from predaceous ground beetles, which are shinier and have enlarged segments at the base of their legs.

Diamondback moth

Identification tips: Larvae are greenish caterpillars up to 0.3 inch long. They are wider in the middle and taper at both ends. Two prolegs on the last segment form a distinctive V shape on their rear end. They feed mostly on outer leaves, creating a “window paning” appearance. Damage is most serious on the growing points of young plants.

Flea beetles

Identification tips: Small (0.13 inch), shiny, brown or black beetles that jump like a flea when disturbed. Check underside of leaves and look for small pits or irregularly shaped holes in leaves.

Garden symphylan

Identification tips: Slender, elongated, and white invertebrates that resemble centipedes. They are about 0.33 inch long with 15 body segments, 11 to 12 pairs of legs, and prominent antennae. They feed on root hairs, which can stunt seedlings.

Grasshoppers

Green peach aphid

Identification tips: Green peach aphids are pale green to yellow and have no waxy covering. They are more common in cole crops than turnip aphid.

Lygus Bug

Identification tips: Adults are true bugs about 0.25 inch long with a distinctive triangular marking on their back. Young nymphs are wingless and may sometimes be confused with aphids. Their feeding causes holes or pits on stems and leaves and can deform developing leaves

Leafminers

Identification tips: Adults are tiny, black and yellow flies. Larvae mine between the upper and lower leaf surfaces, creating winding, white tunnels that widen as the larva grows.

Seedcorn maggot

Identification tips: Larvae are small, white, and legless. Pupae are small, brown capsules and adults are dark gray flies. Seedcorn maggot feeds on seedlings but does not attack older plants.

Sowbugs

Identification tips: Adults have seven pairs of legs and are dark gray or brown but may be almost purple or blue just after molting. They feed on seedlings.

Springtails

Identification tips: Minute, insect-like organisms that are less than 0.1 inch and do not have wings. In the Salinas Valley and Central Coast, they can feed on germinating seeds, roots, and seedling leaves, and can stunt seedling growth.

Sweetpotato Whitefly

Identification tips: Adults are about 1.5 mm long, with yellowish bodies and white wings. Nymphs and pupae are oval and translucent, white, or yellowish, and have no filaments projecting from their bodies. Their feeding may cause leaves to turn white or silver, slow plant growth, and cause white stem.

Wireworms

Identification tips: Larvae are slender, cylindrical, yellow to brown, and up to 1.25 inch long. Wireworms feed on seeds, clip off seedlings and small roots, and bore into roots and underground stems. Seedlings are most susceptible.