Rice
Slender Rice Bug
Cletus trigonus
Insect
In a Nutshell
- Small, brown to grey bugs.
- Small, dark spots on rice grains.
Can also be found in
Rice
Symptoms
You will see small, brown to grey bugs with flat bodies and sharp shoulders sticking out behind their heads. These insects are feeding by sucking on younger rice grains and leaves. This feeding creates small, dark spots especially on the grains. These spots can affect the appearance and quality of the rice.
Recommendations
Organic Control
Insecticidal soap or botanicals, such as neem oil or pyrethrin, may provide some control of young nymphs mainly. Leaf-footed bugs, such as the Slender rice bug, have many natural predators, including birds, spiders, and insects that prey on and parasitize them. To help control leaf-footed bugs, you can attract these natural enemies by offering shelter and water for birds and using fewer broad-spectrum insecticides.
Chemical Control
This bug is considered a leaf-footed bug. For leaf-footed bugs there is a range of insecticides.
These bugs would fly away if disturbed and can escape from the plants when spraying; thus, it is better to spray early in the morning when they move slower due to lower temperatures.
What caused it?
The slender rice bug attacks rice and other crops, such as soybeans. The females lay the eggs one by one on the leaves of rice. The first young bugs hatch in about 7 days. They grow through five stages before they turn into adult bugs. Younger generation are smaller than adults but look alike to the adults. When the winter is warm, more of these bugs survive. So, in years with warm winters, you might see more of them.
Preventive Measures
- Remove all grassy weeds from your rice field and nearby areas as they can provide shelter for these bugs.
- Once the rice grains are starting to form, start with biweekly checks in your field to spot the bug.
- Adults often fly out of the way before you reach the rice plant to check, so counts may only reveal the younger insects.
- For this reason check in the early morning where it is colder and adults move slower.
- While checking you can handpick and crush the bugs or brush them off with soapy water to prevent the population from growing.
- These bugs can be found in rice fields at every stage of the rice growing.
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