Hop Pests ID thread: Pics, descriptions and solutions

hungry4hops - Those are just regular spiders, nothing to worry about. Mites are much smaller, around the size of a pencil tip. The white growth on your leaf is not powdery mildew, but it may just be Botrytis growing on already dead leaf tissue. Is the humidity quite high where you are?

FuzzeWuzze - Looks like a random fly to me. I would not give it a second thought.

theredben said:

hungry4hops - Those are just regular spiders, nothing to worry about. Mites are much smaller, around the size of a pencil tip. The white growth on your leaf is not powdery mildew, but it may just be Botrytis growing on already dead leaf tissue. Is the humidity quite high where you are?

FuzzeWuzze - Looks like a random fly to me. I would not give it a second thought.

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Its been really humid ad raining for like a week and a half, thanks for easing my mind I was starting to worry!

theredben said:

hungry4hops - Those are just regular spiders, nothing to worry about. Mites are much smaller, around the size of a pencil tip. The white growth on your leaf is not powdery mildew, but it may just be Botrytis growing on already dead leaf tissue. Is the humidity quite high where you are?

FuzzeWuzze - Looks like a random fly to me. I would not give it a second thought.

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Yea I wasnt sure, only took a pic because it looks more like a flying ant than anything

What about these? Pretty sure this is an aphid shell, it didnt move at all...or maybe was asleep i dont know.

So far there are only a limited amount of them, ive spotted maybe one per leaf if that. Also spotted this white dot, not sure if its an Egg of an Aphid or something else..

FuzzeWuzze - The first pic is an aphid. If the levels are low, I would not be concerned. A plant can handle a significant number of aphids before any damage becomes apparent. Also, local beneficial insects need to have a low level to feed on.

The second picture could be anything from spider eggs to catapillar eggs, to beneficial insects. Nothing to worry about at this point.

Hi,

These are third generation plants that have never had any problems but all of a sudden this past week the leaves have started turning and a base vine on each plant is turning a dark red. We spotted the tiny little yellowish orangeish guys seen in the first two pictures crawling all over the tops of all the leaves. They seem to hop real far when you try to push them off.

Are these aphids or something else?

Wernerherzog - I can't tell from the pictures, but the insects you describe could be leafhoppers. Leafhoppers are similar to aphids, since they suck plant sap, but they are extremely mobile, and cannot be controlled by regular insecticides. Luckily they are nothing to worry about, as they only leave a few yellow spots on your leaves. The only other possibility would be spider mites, but those would be visible on the underside of the leaf. Spider mites look like extremely small spiders (~1mm), and live in large colonies. If you have a spider mite infestation, you will see webbing around the colony. If you do not see webbing with many small mites, then you problem is leafhoppers.

For the second pictures, is there any possibility of physical damage? Wind? Lawnmower/weedeater? Racoons/Deer/Other? It doesn't look insect or disease related.

I suppose it could be wind damage as I'm in Chicago, but this hasn't happened in the previous two years of the plant's lives, so I'm skeptical that they'd be so damaged when they've grown much stronger and heftier this year than in previous years.

Anyone have any clue what these are? There are lots of bugs clustered together here along with some eggs.

DubBrew said:

Anyone have any clue what these are? There are lots of bugs clustered together here along with some eggs.

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Ladybugs if you are lucky... http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com/ladybug-lifecycle.php

Something detrimental to the health of your plant if you are not.

Those look more like moth eggs to me. What kind of moths do you have in the Columbus area? I would google search for "xxx moth eggs" and I suspect you will find a match.

Cheers!

DubBrew said:

Anyone have any clue what these are? There are lots of bugs clustered together here along with some eggs.

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Looks like possible lady bugs, but I'd cut that leaf out and put it in a jar. If they look like ladybug larvae when they are done hatching, put em back on the plant.

DubBrew said:

Anyone have any clue what these are? There are lots of bugs clustered together here along with some eggs.

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So my wife works for a company with some bug experts available occasionally. She took this picture to work and they told her they were stink bug larve. I pulled the leaf off and threw it away. They recommended Ortho Elementals Insecticidal Soap.

I use Surround which is a form of kaolin clay (same stuff that is in kaopectate). My biggest problem is Japanese beetles and this discourages them from dining on my hops. Good for fruit trees as well...

Any idea what these guys are? They look like baby stink bugs to me. Only on my hops which now have a massive explosion of mites due to the rain we've had. Blasted them with neem so hopefully that helps.

so further research suggests nymph stink bugs of the brown or green variety.

any other ideas besides neem?

MeanDeuce said:

so further research suggests nymph stink bugs of the brown or green variety.

any other ideas besides neem?

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I had some critters that looked like that last year. I used organocide on them and the aphids that were trying to set up shop and it worked very well. I don't know what they were but they were causing some damage so they had to go.
Good luck.

So I have been seeing some flies and what looks like honeybees stuck to my hops as they die. I am not sure why... I didnt think that Hops were carnivorous:




Not lady bugs: Here is a picture of some Stink bug larvae, verified via googlehttp://pestcontrolcenter.com/blog/?p=1174:

That second picture is definitely what those guys were. I haven't seen any more today since spraying the Neem and sliced them in half with my snips.

Anyone have problems with flies and wasps? Depending on the day my plants are over run with one or the other. SWBO isn't too happy.

I see flies and wasps on mine a lot, but don't think they are doing anything other hanging out. I have grown hops for a couple years now and don't think they are a problem...

I'm not worried they are hurting the plant, SWMBO is annoyed there are dozens of them at all times.

Already harvested some but this is the state they have come to. Had them on irrigation and ground is a little damp and also applied some slow release fert. It has been hot, but they only get half day sun. Any ideas?

Feurhund said:

Already harvested some but this is the state they have come to. Had them on irrigation and ground is a little damp and also applied some slow release fert. It has been hot, but they only get half day sun. Any ideas?

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Are those centennial? Looks a lot like mine. Book I have suggests that it's a mildew problem that's killed the leaves. They were white flecked, now look just like yours.

Feurhund said:

Already harvested some but this is the state they have come to. Had them on irrigation and ground is a little damp and also applied some slow release fert. It has been hot, but they only get half day sun. Any ideas?

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Mine get that way after harvest as well. I figured it was the heat plus stress from pickin.

Die off is normal this time of year. Cycle of life...leave them alone until all the leaves are gone, then hack them back for next year. Cheers!

mlints said:

I found these critters chewing holes in the leaves of my second-year plant. I believe it's the caterpillar of the Eastern Comma butterfly, also known as the Hop Merchant. They hang out on the undersides of the leaves. So far, the plant seems to be outgrowing the damage, but I've been hand-picking the ones I can reach just to be on the safe side.

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I've got these little guys on my centennial. Aggravating!

I like dish soap mixed with water in a spay bottle, that way you don't worry about burning the leaves

HALIFAXHOPS said:

neem oil or bio-smash works great.

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Had a few pm"s about what is bio-smash. Make a fist and splat!

Will this thread do for discussing disease as well as bugs?

I have some growth on my biggest, previously happiest leaves:



Last Thursday I moved my hops from a gallon planter indoors into the rised beds outdoors. The plant was delicate at first and so in wanted it to be strong before putting it outside (particularly to avoid over watering the roots as we can get a lot of water here [near west coast of Scotland]).

The biggest leaves have this growth which rapidly appeared over the weekend while I was away. There is general wind between 5-12 mph, and humidity has been between 70-80%. Temperatures have been between 15 and 20, but I have a clear plastic sheet suspended over the plant on one side to provide a bit more warmth while not getting in the way in terms of airflow.

It is spreading fast. I'm worried that it is powdery mildew.


Also, one of the heads has fallen off. It almost looks like it has been burnt where it fell off. I couldn't find anything that looks like that on the wikipedia list of hops diseases.

Here are a few more pictures including a bit more back story to the plant.

The early leaves when i got it look like this but none of them have large white patches and I'm afraid to cut off the biggest, once healthiest looking leaves!

Just wondering if anybody has any idea what these guys are? The first pic is of the apparent damage from above with the second being all of the little caterpillars on the underside. I obviously cut the leaf off and disposed of it and haven't yet seen any signs of any more.

Found a bunch of caterpillars this weekend. Not sure what type it is.

bristela said:

Just wondering if anybody has any idea what these guys are? The first pic is of the apparent damage from above with the second being all of the little caterpillars on the underside. I obviously cut the leaf off and disposed of it and haven't yet seen any signs of any more.

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That is thrip damage.

I found this on my cascade tonight. Any idea what it might be?


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Found a few of these but this is the largest of them eating the hops cone. Any ideas on what it is and how to prevent them next year. Also what would happen if I missed them and they made it into the brew?


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Hi folks, long-time lurker here with some pics. This is 3rd year growth and our first good harvest. My plants were definitely infested with spider mites the last couple years and but this year I was able to stave them off with predatory mites and lady bugs for long enough for plants to grow large. I'm starting to harvest now and finding quite a few cones with what holes in leaves near the base of the cone and withered, eaten out tops of the cones. There are small, hard black dots that I assume are excrement from whatever's eating the cones as they are definitely not alive (I crushed a few to be sure). I also found a very small number of the white dots like the ones on my finger there that are definitely egg cases for something. I pulled the damaged center out of one cone and that's what you see me dangling with the black dots attached and the whole thing held together by some kind of web-like material. I didn't think spider mites did this kind of damage! Any advice on what's eating my hops or how to prevent would be greatly appreciated!

mthompson said:

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These are pictures from another thread. I had the same issue in my cascades at harvest this year. holes with a little webbing and then those brown egg like things or full on small green caterpillars inside. Lost a lot of beautiful hops.

Eanyone ever seen eggs like this? Start as gray and transition to white. Any help would be appreciated

stonebrewer said:

I use Surround which is a form of kaolin clay (same stuff that is in kaopectate). My biggest problem is Japanese beetles and this discourages them from dining on my hops. Good for fruit trees as well...

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Does the surround stay on through a rain?