Be Aware of Early Season Plant bugs in Almonds and Pistachios
Jhalendra Rijal is an area UCANR IPM Advisor based in Stanislaus County
He said growers need to be aware of these big and small bugs.
“There are several kinds of plant and stinkbug that are a problem in tree nuts with the majority of cases in pistachio and almonds. We have not seen any problems in walnuts,” Rijal said.
Rijal describes how bad these plant bugs and stinkbugs can be. “There are different species of plant bugs and stinkbugs,” he said. “There are smaller size bugs early in the season there is a leaf-footed bug, which is a fairly big size. And then there are a couple of different species of the stinkbug.”
“In terms of the damage they do in the orchard, timing, and the size of the bug is important. So, those are the two important factors we need to notice,” said Rijal. “For example, the smaller bugs, moving into the orchard very early in the season when nut size is very small and soft, the bugs could do some damage. However, the larger leaf-footed bugs and big stinkbugs early in the season can do substantial damage-causing nut abortion and then substantial, not drop early in the season,” explained Rijal.
