The Four-Lined Plant Bugs of the Apocalypse
In a recent post I speculated about a possible fungal disease disfiguring some of my plants. Alert readers Brenda Coulter and Julia V correctly identified the problem as four-lined plant bug.
It’s odd how after they mentioned this bug, I started seeing it everywhere. This either says something about my limited powers of observation, or suddenly my four-lined plant bugs stopped using their invisibility cloaks.
Four-lined plant bugs have piercing mouth parts. They suck the chlorophyll out of the leaf cells, which sounds rather sinister. After that the cells turn brown or black and may fall from the leaf, leaving little holes. If there is enough damage the leaves may shrivel up.
There is one good thing about four-lined plant bugs: they don’t stick around for very long. They hatch in May or June and mature over about six weeks. Then they feed for another month or so, mate, and die, leaving their eggs to overwinter. They have only one generation per year.
Healthy plants should recover from the vampire-like attentions of the four-lined plant bug. The damage is cosmetic, though it can look darn ugly.
In my garden it looks like these bugs have matured, so they should be around for another month or less. When they are gone I may cut back the damaged plants – primarily Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum) and Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum). It doesn’t make sense to me to cut the plants back while the bugs a still feeding.
My hope is that everything will recover by August 1, when our garden will be part of the Wild Ones garden tour. If not, I’ll survive.
I considered using an organic insecticidal soap, but decided against it. My understanding is the soap can kill non-target insects, including beneficial predators. My garden has been remarkably free of insect pests for some years, which I attribute to a diverse and balanced insect population. In order to maintain that balance, I will tolerate some cosmetic damage, even some delayed or lost flowering.
Do you ever use insecticidal soaps? If so, at what point do you think it is warranted?
gardeninacity 
Pure evil.
I would take your approach of creating a balanced garden. Your bug looks interesting does it provide food for any thing else? A few years ago I bought an organic insecticidal soap and after a few sprays decided its not for me as they are indiscriminate on invertebrates and I did not know what the affects were on birds and frogs who would usually eat the invertebrates. Are you opening your garden up?
There are predators for this bug but I’m not sure if there are particular ones. Yes, our garden will be on the itinerary for a garden tour sponsored by a native plant society.
Glad the problem has been identified… can you do anything to prevent the eggs from overwintering? I would also go the organic way and avoid any kind of insecticide.
Yes, I could do a more thorough cleanup in fall/early spring, also make sure to remove the host plants. Though I am not sure any of the host plants are in my garden, I’ll have to check that.
I haven’ t come across these bugs, my particular bug horrors are lily beetle and asparagus beetle. I thought at first the latter were an unusual sort of ladybird and was admiring their prettiness. Now my daily garden patrol is a killing mission. I squash them with my fingers; not for the squeamish. But no nasty sprays please. Obviously they upset the balance and kill the good guys as well as the plant- munching monsters.
Luckily I have yet to be afflicted by lily beetles, though I do have lilies. Do asparagus beetles attack plants other than asparagus? These four-lined bugs are a bit too quick to catch, but when I used to have Japanese beetles I would go out every morning and evening and push them into a mug of soapy water. Then I would watch them drown and make cackling noises.
I don´t use any insecticidal soap in my garden either. We have a society in Denmark called ” poison free gardens” that I have joined. Both for sake of all the other insects in our gardens, but also for the sake of our groundwater.
Congratulations on being ahead of some of the rest of us in protecting our environment. 🙂
We have something similar in some parts of the US.
I have not encountered this bug and am glad you were able to at least identify it and its habits. My nemesis, the Japanese Beetle, will be arriving soon and destroy everything in its path. I try to capture them and feed them to the chickens which is my only satisfaction. I haven’t tried any insecticidal soaps but if they worked on these beetles I might be tempted. 🙂
The Japanese beetles were a problem here a few years ago, but I haven’t seen many in the garden for quite a while, for which I am grateful.
I do hope your four-lined plant bugs will respect their eviction dates. Haven’t come across this bug before, so interesting to learn about them.
Well, if they’re not out in time I’ll have to drag them to court.
Since it looks like you’ll have to put up with them, I hope they make good food for the birds.
That’s also what I am hoping.
I don’t use much of anything in my garden. Mainly because I am lazy in that respect. Usually I use your stated way of dealing with pests. Just wait them out. They eventually go away.
Plus I don’t like dealing with mixing sprays, organic or not.
There is always something that wants to chew its way through our lovely gardens. At the little house in the big woods, it’s slugs and snails. Never heard of the four-line plant bug. And, yes, what a good decision not to use anything on them.
I’m happy to say we see very few slugs or snails. Must be too dry for them.
Jim, I have used insecticidal soap, but mainly on my potted plants. I also found neem oil to be good. I nay used it to control aphids, though, and let natures take it’s course otherwise. Predatory insects do a remarkable job if you have enough, as well as particular plants that attract certain insects. Japanese bean beetles preferred the Amaranthus leaves over the beans, so as a result their leaves were almost see through while the leaves of the beans were almost untouched. The problem with neem oil is that you have to make sure you mix it with dish soap and keep the sprayer shaken or you can get brown areas on your leaves… But, in your case now, since the four-lined plant bug is almost run it’s course… Do they particularly like only certain plants? If they are only attracted to certain plants, you only have to spray those plants. Using a synergistic spray, like neem oil, makes the leaves taste bad and they won’t eat them… GREAT POST!!!
Thanks … they seem to be focused on the Culver’s Root and Anise Hyssop.
I’m glad you have got to the root of the problem…..but what a pretty looking beetle, I haven’t seen one of those before. Good to hear there will be no long lasting damage! I hope all comes good for the garden tour, I’m sure it will.
I avoid all sprays and chemicals and rely on natural predators which is ad hock usually.xxx
It is kind of pretty, though I will be relieved when it is gone.
I don’t use insecticides or herbicides these days. I just let nature run its course. The only plants we really had trouble with were lilies and lily beetles, so I don’t grow them anymore.
I have lilies but no lily beetles – yet. Hope it stays that way.
Yes, I agree with Marian (and the others). I sometimes use Neem oil (organic) on houseplants, but that’s because houseplants don’t have the benefit of being outside and interacting with the beneficial insects. Oh, and beer traps for slugs in my vegetable garden. Otherwise, I agree–it’s worth the cosmetic damage to have an environmentally friendly garden. I hope these insects will exit your garden soon.
I would dump these into soapy water like I do with Japanese beetles, but they are too hard to catch.
I used to go out early in the morning when they were still sluggish. Their movements are predictable: they tend to drop out of sight of danger so if you put your water trap under them many will fall down into the water.
This is a new bug to me, possibly because it is a mid-west native? Apparently, the four-lined plant bug is native to the US, which means that it should have natural predators that will keep it in check over the long run. Some of those birds that hang out in your garden might be happy to feed it to their babies. Since reading Doug Tallamy, I tend to only worry about non-native insects (like Japanese Beetles) that aren’t integrated into the local ecology. For these, I try to use manual controls (like brushing Japanese beetles off the plants they are eating into a container of water to drown them). I think your approach is a wise one.
According to Dave’s Garden, predators of the four-lined plant bug include damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs, pirate bugs, and jumping spiders. Not actually familiar with any of these. but I hope they increase their presence soon.
He’s a handsome bug. Only Frank Langella brought that kind of good looks to the role of Dracula.
Is that Frank Langella? I thought it was Bela Lugosi.
newer remake
Interesting thread. I try and stay away from insecticides–especially if I would have to mix them (I don’t trust my skills on figuring out the ratios correctly). I am a live and let live kind of person for the most part and have been extremely lucky in that not too much has enjoyed my plants. Current insect obsession seems to be the roses…all the leaves now look somewhat lacy. But like another poster here I am too lazy and too busy to get after it.
My roses seem to be OK. Odd that the plants having the worst time are the ones that are normally trouble free.
Don’t cut your plants back. If all they ate were the leaves, then why cut the stalk that will grow more leaves? I just had spider mites completely decimate my phlox leaves but they’re already growing back. Give them a couple of good drenchings of water enriched with liquid kelp and then just wait.
Knocking on wood that I don’t have any spider mites.
Hello Jason, ants are a big problem here, they’ve turned the front border into a black fly factory and the ladybirds are no-where to be seen. I won’t spray the black fly, but I’ll probably put down ant bait just to control the population, which is getting out of control! Ugh, I hate ants.
Ants are not a big problem here, except for the really tiny ones that sometimes get into our kitchen.
I’ve seen them before but not on my plants luckily. No insect damage in my garden yet this year, but June is still pretty early to have any damage grow out. I am sure you will have a beautiful display by open garden time.
Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better.
They can be a real p-i-t-a. They have a short life span but the eggs do overwinter in the duff and at the tips of plant stems (about 6 inches along the stem). They really like plants that have aromatic resins so as you can imagine that is a problem for those of us in Texas growing every type of sage available. They used to be rare here in the south but their population has exploded recently. It took me a year of serious effort to get rid of them. They are native but they were out of control in one of my beds. I went out each morning to capture the nymphs early in the season and then cleaned the bed meticulously that fall and trimmed everything that might host the eggs. I still have a few here and there but it doesn’t look like Manhattan at rush hour any more.
Maybe I will be extra tidy with garden clean up this year, then try to hunt down the nymphs in spring. I’m still hoping the natural predators will be drawn in to keep them under control.
Thank goodness they don’t stay long. I am also on a garden tour this year, in mid-July (unfortunately a few weeks before full-bloom time here). I’ve been using just a solution of dish soap and water and only on my John Cabet climbing rose bush. I worry that it might be bad for some beneficial bugs. But if I don’t put anything on it, the rose bush will be just bare by July. Everything else I just leave alone.
I have some bug sucking my tomatoes, peppers and okra…they seem to not be causing any damage…..I do not use anything except a bucket of soapy water for lily beetles and J beetles both non-native pesky insects.
Does that work on the lily beetles?
Im not wanting to see these in my garden which right now looks quite healthy. Whenever I see a crawling thing on a leaf I’m at a loss to know what it is or what to do about it!
Unless it’s a Japanese beetle, I pretty much ignore the crawling things.
Buy a mantis egg cluster once hatched will take care of all bugs that dare step foot in the garden – http://www.djemir.com