Pest Management

Asian Lady Beetles

Asian lady beetles are attracted to light-colored exterior surfaces, such as white or yellow, and will often congregate in areas exposed to afternoon sun.

Bed Bugs

Eradication of bedbugs requires a multistep approach that includes thorough cleaning, applying pesticides, and preventing reinfestation.

Boxelder Bugs

Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs

Stink bugs can enter cracks as small as 1/16 to 1/8 inch around windows, doors, eaves and overhangs, dryer vents, and are an annoyance indoors.

Cicadas

Consider postponing the planting of new trees and covering existing young trees with a fine mesh netting during cicadas egg-laying period.

Colorado Potato Beetles

Plants commonly attacked by Colorado potato beetle include potato, eggplant, tomato and pepper.

Corn Earworm

Corn earworm is the primary economic pest of sweet corn in West Virginia. Infestations of corn earworm result from migrant moths carried northward on storm fronts during mid-to-late summer.

Cucumber Beetles

Cucumber beetles are one of the most serious insect pests of cucurbit vegetables (e.g., cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squash).

Eastern Tent Caterpillars

Eastern tent caterpillar larvae are covered with long, soft hairs and are bluish-black in color with a white line running down the back. Moths are reddish-brown in color with two pale lines running across the forewings.

Fall Webworms

Fall webworm larvae are a common defoliator of a number of ornamental and fruit trees throughout West Virginia.

Harlequin Bugs

Plants commonly attacked by harlequin bugs include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, radish and turnips.

Japanese Beetles

Adult Japanese beetles feed on the foliage, flowers, and/or fruit of more than 300 different plant species and are considered a major pest of many popular horticultural and agricultural plants.

Lecanium Scale

Usually, the first indication of a lecanium scale problem is a tree or shrub with stunted growth and poor vigor accompanied by some dieback.

Plum Curculio

Plum curculio cause considerable damage to apple, pear, apricot, peach, plum, nectarine, cherry and other tree fruits.

Poplar Tree Pests

Tuliptree scale and yellow- poplar weevil can both cause a sticky, black substance to cover yellow (tulip) poplar trees, damage leaves and scar the ground.

Spotted Lanternflies

Be on the lookout for a new invasive insect pest, the spotted lanternfly, which attacks several host plants such as grapes, hops, and various fruit and timber trees.

Spotted Wing Drosophila

Spotted wing drosophila targets any fruits, vegetables, and/or ornamentals that have soft skin, presenting an easy target for gravid females to deposit their eggs.

Ticks

If an attached tick is found, remove it using thin-tipped tweezers or forceps. Grasp the tick as close to skin as possible and pull the tick upward with steady even pressure to remove the tick with its mouthparts intact to reduce the risk of infection.

White Grubs

White grubs feed below the soil surface on the roots of grasses. Early symptoms of feeding injury include grass wilting or yellowing, and the appearance of scattered, dead patches of grass.