Champion Daylilies
Leafhoppers
The beet leafhopper is approximately 0.125 inches long, wedge shaped, and pale green to gray or brown in color. It may have dark markings on the upper surface of the body. It can be distinguished from Empoasca leafhoppers by its darker markings; Empoasca leafhoppers are a uniform green color. Beet leafhopper over-winters on rangeland weeds and migrates to other crops in spring as its over-wintering hosts die.
Damage
While some damage is caused by nymphal and adult feeding, the most serious problem is the viral disease, curly top, that is vectored by beet leafhoppers. Infected plants turn yellow and stop growing. The leaves of plants infected with this virus are dwarfed, crinkled, and rolled upward and inward. Veins are roughened and often swollen. Roots become distorted, often with a proliferation of hair roots (not to be confused with Rhizomania). Phloem tissue often becomes necrotic and appears as dark rings in cross sections or dark streaks in longitudinal sections of the root. Spring plantings are the most susceptible.
Management
Control efforts, consisting of treatments with the insecticide malathion, occur primarily at three periods: in fall to reduce the over-wintering population; in winter to control adult females before egg laying begins; and in spring to reduce the population before migration back to sugarbeet occurs. Weed control in areas surrounding the field can help reduce sources of beet curly top inoculum.
Biological Control
Attempts have been made to introduce several leafhopper parasites. To date, these parasites are not well enough established to provide natural control. It is hoped, however, that with time they may become effective in regulating leafhopper populations.
Cultural Control
Removal of weeds surrounding fields can play an important role in reducing sources of inoculum available to migrating leafhoppers.
Monitoring and Treatment
Foliar insecticides have not proven to be generally effective in controlling beet leafhopper and reducing the incidence of beet curly top virus when applied directly to the crop. Occasionally systemic insecticides have proven valuable in reducing the incidence of this virus. The effectiveness of these materials depends on the climatic factors affecting weed hosts of the leafhopper and the virus, timing of planting and application of materials relative to leafhopper migration, proximity of fields to leafhopper/virus over-wintering sites, and the success of state programs to reduce leafhopper populations.
Beet leafhopper
Potato leafhopper
Leafhopper damage