Minute pirate bugs, particularly Orius insidiosus, are vital biological control agents for managing herbivorous insect pests. These small, predatory insects prey on a range of soft-bodied pests including thrips, mites, and aphids, making them crucial for natural pest suppression in a variety of agricultural settings. Orius are especially attracted to flowering plants, which makes landscape-level strategies like farmscaping—such as planting hedgerows, insectary plants, and cover crops—highly effective in boosting their populations. Producers and homeowners can protect and encourage these beneficial insects by minimizing broad-spectrum pesticide use and integrating pest management practices that support their habitat, thereby leveraging their natural predatory capabilities to reduce pest densities and enhance the health of crop plants.

Corn earworm is a pest of multiple agricultural crops grown in Virginia, including vegetables. These pests have a wide host range and can cause extensive damage, but monitoring and a variety of control methods help suppress populations and prevent losses.

The pepper maggot, Zonosemata electa, is a significant pest of bell pepper in eastern North America, having transitioned from its native wild host, the horse nettle, to domesticated solanaceous plants like bell pepper and eggplant. Infestation levels can be alarming, with near-total crop loss possible from a single maggot per fruit. Control methods primarily involve insecticide applications, posing challenges for organic producers. The pest has a single annual generation, overwintering as a pupa in soil. Monitoring adult populations using yellow sticky traps and oviposition scars is essential for effective management. Cultural practices such as field sanitation, crop rotation, and the eradication of alternate hosts are crucial in mitigating damage. Additionally, trap cropping with hot pepper varieties and perimeter sprays have shown success in reducing damage to bell peppers. Various insecticides are available for pre-emptive control, emphasizing the importance of monitoring to optimize application timing.

The fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), a pest from the Noctuidae family, originates from the tropical Americas and lacks diapause, allowing it to migrate north from Gulf Coast states. This moth has been reported in all U.S. states east of the Rockies and has become a significant pest in other parts of the world. Fall armyworm larvae cause severe defoliation to a variety of plants, especially grasses, and fruit damage to crops like sweet corn, tomatoes, and peppers. Management strategies include using pheromone traps for monitoring, scouting for eggs and larvae, and promoting biological controls. Insecticides are also used, though resistance issues can arise. Effective control requires timely interventions based on thresholds to mitigate economic impact.

Field Guide to Stink Bugs of Agricultural Importance in the United States

This guide lists vegetable varieties that are available and are adapted to the mid-Atlantic region, gives an overview of cultural practices, and list chemicals recommended to manage pests, diseases and weeds in vegetable crops. New varieties of vegetables are constantly being developed throughout the world. While all efforts are made to have comprehensive lists, not all varieties that are adapted will be listed.

New varieties and strains of particular varieties of vegetables are constantly being developed throughout the world. Since it is impossible to list and describe all of them, only some of the better performing commercial types are listed in the specific crop section, either alphabetically or in order of relative maturity from early to late. These varieties are believed to be suitable for commercial production under most conditions.

In the mid-Atlantic U.S. vegetable crops are attacked by several different stink bug species (1). The primary pest species include: the invasive brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), Halyomorpha halys, which has become the dominant species in most landscapes (2), brown stink bug, Euschistus servus Say, which is the most common species attacking tomatoes; green stink bug, Chinavia hilaris Say (3); and harlequin bug, Murgantia histrionica, which is primarilly a pest of brassica vegetables only (4). All stink bugs are piercing sucking feeders that insert their stylets into the fruit, pods, buds, leaves, and stems of plants.

In recent years cucurbit growers in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. could purchase their seeds pre-treated with the neonicotinoid insecticide thiamethoxam. The insecticide seed treatment is currently packaged as FarMore F1400, which also includes three proven and complementary fungicides that provide the first line of defense against several key seed and seedling diseases including Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, Pythium, general damping-off and seedling blight.

In Virginia and other Mid-Atlantic states, the invasive brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) has become a serious nuisance pest (Rice et al. 2014). Each fall, these insects aggregate on buildings seeking shelters in which to spend the winter months.

Slugs are prevalent pests in no-till and reduced-till crop systems in Virginia. These slimy mollusks utilize plant residue to hide during the day, and at night, they feed on numerous crops causing irregular feeding holes and shredded leaves. Slugs cause the most damage during early plant growth.

Mexican Bean Beetle (MBB), Epilachna varivestis Mulsant (Fig. 1), is an herbivorous lady beetle (Coccinellidae) that feeds on bean crops (legumes) in North America. It is similar to the squash lady beetle, Epilachna borealis, which feeds primarily on cucurbits. MBB can cause significant defoliation damage to various bean crops particularly in the genus Phaseolus (snap beans, lima beans, pole beans, etc.). It will also feed on soybean, alfalfa, beggarweed, kudzu, and other legumes.

Farmscaping is a holistic ecologically-based approach to pest management that emphasizes the arrangement or configuration of plants that promote biological pest management by attracting and sustaining beneficial organisms. Ideal farmscape plantings provide habitat for beneficial insects, suppress weeds, and grow in close proximity to the cash crop without competing for light, water and nutrients. Research has shown that maintaining high levels of species diversity is a key characteristic of a proper functioning agroecosystem. Unfortunately, intensive farming operations including growing large monocultures, regular cultivation, and excessive use of insecticides often leads to a dramatic reduction in arthropod diversity, especially natural enemies that often keep many pest insects below damaging levels. Farmscaping is a technique designed to add diversity back to the system and minimize disturbance leading to increases in natural enemy populations by providing insectary plants as food and shelter resources.

This publication reviews the biology of cantharid beetles. Cantharids, known as soldier beetles or leatherwings, are commonly-encountered beetles throughout Virginia. Two species in the genus Chauliognathus are the most frequently observed; the margined leatherwing (Chauliognathus marginatus) is found during the spring and early summer, while the Pennsylvania leatherwing or goldenrod soldier beetle (Chauliognathus pensylvanicus) is active during the late summer and early fall. Both species visit a variety of wild and cultivated flowers, and they can be considered beneficial insects.

In Virginia, cucurbits are attacked by two native species of cucumber beetles, the striped cucumber beetle, A. vittatum, which is featured in this document, and the spotted cucumber beetle, Diabrotica decimpunctata howardi (Mannerheim), which is discussed in a separate fact sheet.

Diamondback moth has become one of the hardest lepidopteran "worm" pests to control globally due to insecticide resistance. Mating disruption is an effective pesticide-free strategy for managing this pest of cabbage, broccoli, collards, and other brassica crops.