INSECT PESTS

Many insect species can cause damage to agricultural crops, but only a few are really destructive. Most insect pests simply need to be kept under control to prevent loss of crops.

The most common groups of insects found in crops are the larvae of fruit and leaf-eating caterpillar species as well as leaf- and flower-eating beetles, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, fruit-damaging pests, sucking pests and soil pests. Insects with chewing and/or sucking mouthparts can cause severe damage to fruit, flowers, leaves and roots. In some cases plants can be destroyed by defoliation or as a result of secondary problems such as root rot or bacterial infections which develop from physical damage.

The most responsible way of handling problems in crops is first to identify the pest and the actual cause of the problem and then to select the friendliest way of dealing with it with no, or very low, risk to yourself and the environment.

 

We are working on the contents of the crop pest pages. For now, some insect images are listed below for viewing to give you an idea of what is to come. This section will contain the most important insect  images per specific crop that cause production loss in agriculture. The most common insect pests that can be found on most grain, legume, and oilseed crops, as well as vegetables, ornamentals, soil and lawn will be covered on these pages. If any person or company like to make a contribution to these pages please feel free to contact us at johan@biologicalcrophealth.co.za .

Please be patient while we are working on this section of the BCH website