PEA APHID

A. Aphid-infested pea plant showing damage and many aphids on leaves and stems. B, Undamaged pea plant. C, Aphids (greatly enlarged); a, winged adult; b, wingless adult; and c, half-grown nymph.

PEA APHID

The pea aphid injures garden peas by sucking the sap from the leaves, stems, blossoms, and pods. Even a few aphids may kill small plants and stunt larger ones. The pea aphid may also spread virus diseases, thus causing further damage to the plants. Damage by the pea aphid may occur wherever garden peas are grown.

The adult is a light-green, soft-bodied insect that may or may not have wings. The winged aphids fly into the pea fields early in the spring and produce living young, which look like the wingless adult aphids. A single adult produces each day 10 to 14 young, which themselves begin to produce additional young in 1 to 2 weeks. When food is plentiful, most of the adult aphids are wingless. When food conditions are unfavorable, winged forms develop and fly to other fields of peas, alfalfa, or clover. In the South this cycle continues throughout the year. In the North, egg-laying adults develop in the fall; the black, shiny eggs are laid on alfalfa or clover. In some climates only the eggs survive the winter.

Control: Dust or spray with rotenone or DDT. Dusts should contain either 1 per. cent of rotenone or 5 percent of DDT and should be applied at 35 to 40 pounds per acre. Sprays should contain either 3 pounds of a 4 percent rotenone powder or 2 quarts of a 25 percent DDT emulsifiable concentrate to 125 gallons of water per acre.

DDT leaves poisonous residues on the foliage. Do not feed pea plants treated with DDT to milk animals or to meat animals being finished for slaughter.