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| Capsid bug |
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The common green capsid, the tarnished plant bug or bishop bug and the apple capsid all cause similar damage to herbaceous ornamental plants and certain fruit trees and bushes.
These are sucking insects and both adults and nymphs feed on the sap of young growths, injecting toxic saliva that kills plant tissues.
Damaged leaves are tattered, puckered and distorted; buds and growing points may be killed, and developing fruits and flowers are often mis-shaped and discoloured.
Capsid bugs move rapidly and have usually left the damaged plants long before the symptoms are apparent.
It is difficult to prevent damage, but using a suitable spray in the winter to deciduous hosts, such as apples and currants, should kill over wintering eggs.
Summer infestations on ornamental plants may be reduced by thorough and frequent spraying.
Some capsids over winter in plant debris, and in leaf litter.
Good garden hygiene, and removal of plant debris, reduces the numbers of these pests carrying over from one season to the next.
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