I've had leafhoppers on my lettuce for at least a half a dozen years. Is there a lettuce variety that is not attractive to leafhoppers. I don't want to use a pesticide.
leafhoppers on lettuce
Whenever I have a pest gaining too much ground, I do research on their life cycle to try to figure out when is a good time (or what is a good way) to disrupt it. Then I try to find out who eats them. Looks like the adults fly in first, lay eggs, and then the larva stick around & do the damage as they grow up. So I'd get some row cover stuff to cover the lettuce to prevent the initial egg laying.
From some quickie research, it also looks like just about every bug predator will enjoy a leaf hopper, so encouraging & building predator populations in or close to your lettuce patch will help alot. Plant plants that attract nectar eating wasps & flies, and put up bird perches in or near the lettuce patch. If you disrupt the life cycle and reduce adult populations one season, the next season will be better.
It's alway good to catch some & identify which particular leafhoppers they are. Then you can search on their latin name & get specific life cycle & natural control advice.
http://www.inhs.illinois.edu/~dietrich/Leafhome.html
http://www.inhs.illinois.edu/~dietrich/lfhFAQ.html
I have found the best defense against all kinds of "bad bugs" is birds - especially wrens. I keep birds fed year round so they will nest close-by.
I love it when I see a black wasp carrying off a caterpillar to feed to it's young. And I always apologize to a spider when I accidentally disturb her nest. Various ground beetles are gardeners friends, too. I don't know one from another, so I let them all roam free.
I had no idea that there were many different kinds of leafhoppers. One of my favorite bugs in my garden is the soldier bug. Unfortunately they are never around my lettuce.
Helen - according to this link, adult soldier flies don't have mouths - poor things don't eat!
http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/2008/06/13/bsf-not-vectors-human-pathogens/
Hmmm... are they male? LOL
No mouth is a good reason to like them!
The soldier bugs that I have look like the one at: http://magickcanoe.com/blog/2006/06/14/silver-eggs/. I used to think that they were ugly and probably bad for my garden. Now that I have learned about them, I love them and they're looking much more handsome. I just wish that they ate those awful leafhoppers. I followed nedweenie's advice and found that damsel bugs are really great predators of leafhoppers. Before I order these bugs I'd like to know if they can overwinter in zone 4. Wow, I never realized how expensive it is to order bugs!
Rather than spending money on more bugs, I would research what will attract those beneficial bugs to your locale. Perhaps spending that money on companion plants instead.
from Bountiful Gardens catalogue:
Quoting:
Companion planting works for many reasons. Attracting pollinators for better fruit set is important, (especially with squashes and some tomatoes.) Attracting insects that eat the insects we don’t want is another very important benefit. Most predator insects need nectar and pollen to complete their life cycle. Some plants have smell or tastes that repel pests, and some secrete chemicals from their roots to repel pests.
Might be worth a bit of research and fun to encourage the bugs to reproduce and overwinter too.
Podster's right. It's far better to attract local predator bugs than to spend money on buying bugs that might not be native to your area. Even if they are a native species, if there's not enough food & habitat to make them stay & settle in, they won't.
There are countless stories on gardening forums from people who bought & released predator bugs only to have them disappear within hours- never to be seen again! Lady bugs, Lacewings, etc.
Meanwhile, there are alot of inexpensive & easy ways to attract & increase local predator populations. Let an area of your yard go wild and sneak perennial attractor plants in it like red clover. For annuals, plant alyssum, dill, and buckwheat in your garden.
Floating row cover is cheap too. Maybe even cheap than those bugs, and you can reuse it for a few seasons. You can get it at Johnny's or Fedco.