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Plant Pests & Diseases

Program Contact: Marco Martinez, Chelan-Douglas Master Gardener Coordinator
509-667-6540 • marco.martinez@wsu.edu

WSU Hortsense provides fact sheets for problem insect

Plant Pests & Diseases

  • Spotted Wing Drosophila –  watch for this soft fruit pest, and monitor your garden.
  • Sequoia Pitch Moth
  • Aphids
  • Berry, Sap, Picnic Beetle — That little beetle feasting on ripe fruit you’re coveting in your berry patch is know as the picnic beetle, sap beetle, and by proper name, as the nitidulid beetle. It enjoys overripe fruit of any kind. Its a nuisance pest.Your best defense is to take action on the offense. Harvest fruit as soon as its ripe. Remove damaged, diseased and overripe fruit as soon as possible.The College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky reports that traps are sometimes used, but their effectiveness is not proven, and a trap does not replace sanitation. A trap is placed between the crop and the woods to intercept the beetle. The trap is a container of fermenting plant juice, such as stale beer, overripe fruit, vinegar, molasses and water with yeast. The beetles fall into the container and drown. (The same trick works for fruit flies.)