Bugs that Spread Plant Diseases

Insects that feed on the sap or grate or eat the leaves of our plants sometimes have much more serious consequences: they may well be carrying an incurable plant disease that will cause more damage that the insect itself ever did. Plant viruses and their relatives, viroids and phytoplasmas, are mostly transmitted by insects that inject them into plant tissues as they eat. However, there is no treatment for viruses in the home garden except to pull out and destroy the plant. This is why it is important to act quickly when a plant is attacked by any insect. Among the insects that transmit viruses are aphids, flea beetles, leafhoppers, whiteflies, thrips and spittlebugs (froghoppers).

Viruses (and other related diseases) sometimes have visible symptoms: for example, a specific discoloration of the leaf (mosaic or marbling) or deformed foliage or flowers, but most often not… except the plant becomes weak and less productive. The two classic cases are strawberries and raspberries. Both are very productive for 2 or 3 years, then go so far downhill due to multiple viral infections that the only logical solution is to destroy them and start anew with “indexed” plants (plants confirmed to be free of viruses).

A good way of reducing the attacks of virus-carrying insects in the home garden is to maintain a good biodiversity in your plantings. Monocultures, where a single plant species is grown over a large area, attract and retain predatory insects of the crop being grown. When plants are grown in mixed plantings, though, these insects have a harder time finding their favorite host and your plants are therefore less often infested with debilitating diseases.