Tachinid flies for leaf-footed bug
Trichopoda pennipes lays its eggs on large nymphs and adults of leaf-footed bugs, and UC IPM lists it among their natural enemies. In a USDA trial in Georgia, flowering milkweed planted beside cotton raised combined parasitism of the eastern leaf-footed bug and two stink bugs from 1.1% to 24.0%. That result comes from a farm crop, not a garden. A parasitised bug keeps feeding for a while, so hand-pick and use row cover as well. Leave any bug with white eggs on its back alone.
Before you act
Bristly, housefly-like flies whose larvae develop inside other insects. The small white eggs glued to a squash bug or caterpillar mean a tachinid has already found it. How to recognise it, what it is confused with and how to keep it around are on the full Tachinid flies profile.
Other controls for leaf-footed bug
- Assassin bugsWild predator · Wild — conserve; not sold as a control