Cole Crops

Bagrada bug

Identification tips: Adults are about 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 or heads of plants that become stunted.

Beet armyworm

Identification tips: Adults lay their eggs in cottony masses on leaf surfaces. Larvae are dull green and feed in groups at younger stages. Older larvae have a light-colored stripe down either side of the body and a characteristic black spot above their second true leg. They skeletonize and consume leaves and stunt growth when they feed on buds.

Cabbage aphid

Identification tips: Greenish-gray aphids with a white, waxy coating that commonly feed in dense colonies. They are most often on the youngest leaves, flowering parts, and deep within the head of the crop.

Cabbage looper

Identification tips: Larvae are green, smooth-skinned, and up to 1.5 inches long with a narrow, white stripe down either side and several white lines down their back. They crawl by arching their bodies. These caterpillars eat ragged holes into leaves and may bore through heads, contaminating them with fecal pellets.

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 the outer leaves, creating a “window paning” appearance, and can also cause economic injury when they bore into flower buds and heads.

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 damage the crop by feeding on root hairs, which provides entry for pathogens.

Green peach aphid

Identification tips: Pale green or yellow aphids that have no waxy covering. They are more common in cole crops than turnip aphid.

Imported cabbageworm

Identification tips: Larvae are green, with fine hairs that give their skin a velvetlike appearance. Older larvae are up to 1 inch long and move slowly. They chew large, irregular holes in leaves, often feeding along the midrib. They may also bore into heads and contaminate them with fecal pellets.

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.

Thrips

Identification tips: Adults are minute, slender insects with two pairs of long, narrow wings that have a fringe of hairs along the margins. Adult thrips may be yellow, orange, brown, or black. Nymphs are white or yellow with dark eyes.