Posts Tagged: Lygus hesperus

A Big Cheer for a Crab Spider

What happened in our pollinator garden on June 3 probably would have promoted a standing ovation from agriculturists who grow cotton, strawberries, sugarbeets, tomatoes, beans, safflower, potatoes, and other crops. A crab spider nailed a major pest, a lygus bug, Lygus hesperus. It's something you...

A crab spider nails an agricultural pest, a lygus bug. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A crab spider nails an agricultural pest, a lygus bug. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Targeting Lygus Bugs

If you've ever grown strawberries, you're probably familiar with what the lygus bug does. This major agricultural pest is one of the causes of those cat-faced strawberries you see in your garden or in the field. Cat-faced? Think misshapened, deformed or irregularly shaped berries. Catfacing...

Lygus bug (Lygus hesperus) is a major agricultural pest. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Lygus bug (Lygus hesperus) is a major agricultural pest. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Looking for Lygus

Frances Sivakoff knows a lygus bug when she sees one. Sivakoff (right), a doctoral candidate in the UC Davis Department of Entomology, won a 2010 Robert and Peggy van den Bosch Memorial Scholarship for her work on the regional movement of the pest. The lygus bug (Lygus hesperus) is a serious...

Lygus Bug

LYGUS BUG, a serious pest of such crops as cotton, alfalfa and strawberries, is also commonly found in the garden. This one is on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Pest Perch

LYGUS BUG, shown here perched on a Mexican hat flower in the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Research Facility, UC Davis, is a serious pest of many crops. It pierces plant tissues, sucking the sap. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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