The adult bug is 1/4" long with an oval flat shape. It usually is brown mottled with yellow and black. Nymphs are pale yellow. Eggs are long and curvy. They both spend winter in garden debris. Several generations per year.
Adults and nymphs both inject poison into young stems, buds, and fruit. It sucks on blossom stems as well. They carry fire blight disease and infect trees as they feed. Black spots and pitting can be seen on the stem, tips, buds, and fruit. They deform roots, blackens terminal shoots, and ruin flowers. Adults fly around trees in spring feeding on plant parts. Leaves and shoots die, and catfacing of fruit can occur.
The most vulnerable plants include strawberries, pears, peaches, and other fruit trees.
Controls include fall cleanup, sticky traps, pyrethrum, rotenone, sabadilla, and netting barriers. Pyrethrum doesn't have too much affect when the population is large, but it will knock down the numbers some.
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