Capsid bug
Miridae
also called Common green capsid, Tarnished plant bug
A sap-sucker whose feeding leaves tattered pin-holes and distorted shoot tips and flower buds. Damage is mostly cosmetic; clear plant debris where the bugs overwinter.
How to know it
Fast-moving flattish bugs about 6 mm long, bright green or mottled brown, with long antennae; they drop or fly the instant you lean in, so the damage is usually all you see. Feeding injects a toxic saliva that kills the tissue around each puncture.
What you'll see
- Ragged pin-holes with brown edges scattered through young leaves, as if pricked with a needle.
- Leaves that unfurl puckered, twisted and tattered because they were punctured while still folded.
- Shoot tips distorted or killed outright, with side shoots breaking below.
- Flower buds aborted or opening one-sided — a common cause of odd, lopsided dahlias and chrysanthemums.
- On apples and currants, small corky bumps and dimples in the skin of the fruit.
Where it comes from
Eggs overwinter in bark crevices and on woody debris, hatching in spring; the nymphs feed on soft growth and mature by midsummer, when a second generation moves onto other hosts. Adults are strong fliers and drift in from hedgerows, so the damage often appears without the culprit ever being seen.
Worst on lush, soft growth in early summer, and on gardens next to rough grass, hedgerow and weedy ground where the bugs breed and overwinter.
Dealing with it
- Accept it where you can — the plant grows away and the tattered leaves are shed by autumn.
- Pinch out distorted tips on dahlias and chrysanthemums to force clean side shoots.
- Look for the bugs at dusk on still evenings, when they are slow enough to pick off.
- Clear leaf litter and old stems around fruit bushes in winter to reduce overwintering eggs.
- Skip spraying: capsids arrive constantly from outside the garden, and the sprays cost you the predators.
Keeping it out
- Keep beds tidy in winter around currants, apples and dahlias in particular.
- Avoid heavy nitrogen feeds that push exactly the soft growth they feed on.
- Mow or cut rough grass adjoining borders in late winter rather than midsummer.
- Grow flowers that recruit damsel bugs and spiders, both of which hunt capsid nymphs.
- Tolerate light damage on fruit — it scars the skin without spoiling the crop.
What it goes for
Currants, apples, pears, roses, dahlias, chrysanthemums, fuchsias, potatoes and beans.
See also
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's bestiary at cottagegardencompanion.com