How to Manage Pests

Seasonal development and life cycle—Sharpshooters

Sharpshooters have incomplete metamorphosis. Immatures (nymphs) ar similar in structure to adults, but are smaller, wingless, and may differ in color. There is no pupal stage. Sharpshooters overwinter as eggs on or in leaves or twigs or as adults in protected places such as bark crevices. Adults become active in late winter or early spring and insert their tiny eggs in tender plant tissue. The wingless nymphs that emerge molt four or five times and mature in about 2 to 7 weeks. Most species have two or more generations each year. The blue-green sharpshooter has one generation per year in most of California, but may have a second generation in some southern areas of the state.

Green sharpshooter nymph