If you live in the southern U.S. , you might find yourself face to face with bean leaf tumbler pigeon ( Urbanus genus Proteus ) . These little caterpillars are vulgar in home gardens , where they assault many member of the bean family .
What Is A Bean Leaf Roller?
Bean folio crimper are the larvae of a species of captain butterfly . The wingspan of grownup butterfly measures as wide as 2 inches across , and they have long “ tails ” put out from their hind wings , making them look as if they ’re trail a pair of yarn as they flitter about the garden . The butterflies are brown and characterless ; most gardeners might not even take placard of them . Their larvae , however , are hard to lose .
Bean leaf rollers are found in the southern U.S. They ’re very unwashed in Florida , Georgia and South Carolina , and they are sometimes feel throughout part of the Southwest , as well . They do n’t survive freezing temperatures , so it ’s rare to see these garden pests in expanse where winters are cold .
Adult females dwell yelloweggson the down in the mouth surface of bean leave . The eggs hatch a few days later . The larvae are small yellow - green caterpillars with a moody , pronounced promontory . As the caterpillar grows , yellowed lines develop along the length of its body .
Jessica Walliser
To protect itself , each larvae notches out a objet d’art of the leaf gross profit and folds the shorten leaf piece over its consistence to protect itself from predators .
When the caterpillar is quick to pupate , it takes shelter in the leaf scroll and organize a chrysalis . Pupation necessitate 1 to 3 weeks , depending on the weather and other factors .
Although Florida is think to be the only state where these insects live twelvemonth - round , they do migrate northwards during the summer months . South Carolina gardener might see them only very late in the season . Come fall , the adults migrate southwards again , to hightail it the pending colder temperature .
Jessica Walliser
Bean Leaf Roller Damage
These caterpillars eat on a blanket range of legumes , includinggreen beans , peas , limas , cowpeasand soybeans . They also flow on a handful of cosmetic legume .
Bean leaf roller feed at night , when they go away the protective lodging of their folio shelter . During the sidereal day , you ’ll find them only inside their objet d’art of curled leafage . Their nocturnal feeding causes notches in the leaf margins . Only severe infestation have meaning damage .
What To Do About Bean Leaf Rollers
Typically , in home gardens , there ’s no need to take action against bean leafage rollers because bean plants are fairly tolerant of the insect ’s feeding scathe . If you have just a handful of the larvae on your plant , rent them be . But if they ’ve ingest a significant amount of foliation , you’re able to hand - squish the caterpillars while they ’re inside their leaf shelters . There are many natural predators of bean leaf rollers as well , let in spined soldier hemipteran and parasitic white Anglo-Saxon Protestant . Spinosad - based constitutive insecticides make to control the larva , though they are seldom send for for .
