 | |  |
| | |  | 
Asparagus BeetlesAdults are 6 to 9.5 mm long, smooth, shiny, and slightly elongated. The common asparagus beetle has a metallic blue head and bluish-black wing covers, each with three yellowish squared spots and reddish outer margins. The area just behind the head is red-orange or tan and has six black spots on each wing cover. Eggs are dark brown, bullet-like, and1.5 mm long. They are attached by one end to the host plant. The spotted asparagus beetle egg is greenish and glued on its side to the host plant. Both species of asparagus beetles occur throughout the U.S. and Canada wherever asparagus is grown. Asparagus is the only food plant of these beetles. The beetles eat shoots and leaves but are particularly damaging when they gnaw the tips of buds causing them to scar and turn brown. In dry seasons, asparagus shoots may be blackened by hundreds of eggs from these beetles.
The larvae of the common asparagus beetle damage plants much like the adults but also secrete a black fluid which stains the plant. Larvae of the spotted species, on the other hand, feed on developing berries, each larva often consuming three or four. Damage to the berries, however, is of little economic importance. Asparagus beetles overwinter as adults in sheltered sites, particularly under bark or in stems of old plants. Common asparagus beetles appear slightly earlier in spring than the spotted species. The beetles feed as soon as they emerge and several days later egg laying begins.
|
| |
©2008 ARBICO Organics