False chinch bugs are small insects. But they travel in packs. An influx of false chinch bugs in your garden can have devastating results.
False chinchbugs are a North American insect that thrives in the western and southwestern climates of the United States. When they move in, they feed on lawns and gardens until the hot summer sun dries the area out. Then, they go to greener pastures.
Knowing how to handle these insects can help you minimize the stress of a false chinch bug invasion. With a little management, even a hungry hoard of false chinch bugs won’t damage your garden.
False and True Chinch Bugs
False chinch bugs (Nysius raphanus), got their name because they look like real chinch bugs (seed bugs, aka Blissus hirtus). False chinch bugs are easily mistakeable for members of the seed bug family.
For gardeners, ranchers, and suburban homeowners in the West and Southwest, false chinch bugs can have a devastating impact. However, most of the time, an infestation is temporary and only mildly damaging.
True chinch bugs are large-eyed, beneficial insects that feed on the mites and pests that damage your garden. While true chinch bugs are generally wider insects, with slightly larger eyes than false chinch bugs, it’s hard to tell the difference.
A full-on, insecticidal battle with false chinch bugs is often more likely to damage true chinch bugs, leaving your garden open for an invasion of other pests.
There is also another insect, the southern chinch bug, which is a neutral presence in the garden. The southern chinch (B. insularis) isn’t directly related to either false or true chinch bugs, but it isn’t a pest.
With all these chinch bugs running around, it can be difficult to decide what sort of chinch bug has settled in your garden.
Life and Habits
False chinch bugs look like miniature stink bugs. They grow to only about an eighth of an inch long. They’re greyish brown in color with small, semi-transparent wings. False chinch bugs have large eyes.
They spend the winter as adults in the soil, waiting for the warm weather to wake them up. When spring temperatures warm up the soil, the adult False chinch crawls out of the soil, lays eggs around the base of plants, and then starts a happy summer of eating and migrating.
The eggs hatch into nymphs that look very similar to the adult bugs. The nymphs also feed on the local plants. Both nymph and adult false chinch bugs love plants in the mustard family. But they will eat almost any cruciferous plants if mustards aren’t available.
After about three weeks the nymphs are fully adult. There are three molts throughout their nymph stage. At each stage, false chinch nymphs look a little more like adults.
Because false chinch nymphs develop quickly, there can be several generations hatched each year. They’ll stay and continue to eat, mate, and lay eggs until all the weedy mustard plants and crucifers die out, or the soil is too dry to sustain them.
Migration
As the season progresses, the warm spring sunshine turns hot and dry. As the plants and soil dries out, false chinch bugs migrate en masse to find greener pastures.
A traveling swarm of false chinch bugs can be an intimidating sight. The dark cloud arrives with hundreds or thousands of tiny, hungry insects. But false chinch bugs rarely do enough damage to destroy whole crops.
False chinch bugs are small, and while they drink up the juices of the plant from stalks and leaves, they don’t often inflict permanent damage. Well-irrigated plants rarely have trouble replenishing their moisture after false chinch bug feedings. But a large swarm of false chinch bugs can have some devastating consequences.
Managing A False Chinch Bug Invasion
False chinch bugs spend their lives moving from place to place in search of food. Since they prefer weedy mustards and cruciferous plants, they often attack the weeds in your garden, rather than the produce.
But even if an invasion of false chinch bugs doesn’t damage your crops, they’re an unpleasant addition to the beautiful summer weather. A swarm of tiny bugs crawling, flying, and landing everywhere isn’t one of the summer memories you’ll cherish.
So what can you do when the swarm arrives at your garden gate?
False Chinch Bugs In the Garden
Most of the time, a swarm of false chinch bugs won’t be large enough to do lasting damage to your plants. They’ll arrive, mate, lay eggs, eat, and leave. A few weeks later, you’ll have another batch of bugs, and the cycle will repeat itself. But if your plants are healthy and well irrigated, they’ll weather the swarms with ease.
So, it is okay to sit this battle out. If you’re tired of dealing with grasshoppers, cutworms, mites, and other pests – you can actually just ignore most false chinch invasions. Water a little extra and just wait them out. They will leave after a few weeks.
But, if you’re not the waiting type, or your swarm of false chinch bugs looks unsustainably large, there are some ways that you can mitigate the damage.
Water
One of the easiest ways to control false chinch bugs is to use sprinklers in the morning and evening. False chinch bugs tend to move around in the cooler early morning or late evening hours.
If you set up a sprinkler system to irrigate your plants during these times, the false chinch bugs will end up washed away and drowned out.
These tiny bugs can’t withstand repeated drops of water. Sprinklers will wash them off your plants and into little puddles, reducing the damage they can cause and their opportunities to raise a new generation.
Row Covers
If you don’t currently have an infestation of false chinch bugs, floating row covers are a great way to keep your garden free of them. Row covers prevent new swarms of false chinches from landing and feeding on your garden.
Row covers won’t work if you already have a swarm of false chinch bugs, or if you have false chinch eggs in the ground, waiting to hatch. If a new generation of false chinch bugs hatches under your row covers, remove the covers immediately so the bugs don’t end up trapped in your garden.
What About Pesticides?
Unfortunately, there aren’t many options for insecticides or pesticides that will safely target false chinch bugs. Most of the insecticides that can control these pests will do more damage to your local pollinators than to your pests.
Since false chinch bug infestations are rarely destructive and usually short-lived, most gardeners are unwilling to damage the local bee population to get rid of them.
Occasionally, a neem-based insecticide will work to manage these insects. Insecticidal soap is also a relatively good option. If you can get good coverage, insecticidal soap will kill false chinch bugs.
But, since there are so many of them, and insecticidal soap only works when it contacts the bug’s body, it’s only a method of managing the size of the swarm. You’re unlikely to kill off all your false chinch bugs with insecticidal soap.
Neem oil itself can be a good option as well. But, like the insecticidal soap, neem oil works on contact. If you can’t spray it directly on the insect, it’s unlikely to do any damage.
False Chinch Bugs Indoors
Often, when a swarm of false chinch arrives in town, they don’t just stick to gardens and fields. False chinches will also invade houses. Like many bugs, false chinches are attracted to light. When the lights are on in your house, they’ll swarm in through any opening.
If you’re dealing with a false chinch invasion, make sure your doors and windows are sealed up tight. The best offense is a good defense against these tiny invaders.
You can try to discourage them by applying a perimeter insecticide around your house. This method will keep false chinch bugs at bay for a day or two, but it will have to be re-applied regularly throughout the swarming period to maintain its efficacy.
It can also harm beneficial insects outside of your home.
If you do end up with false chinch bugs indoors, the best way to control them is by simply vacuuming them up. False chinches are tiny, and they vacuum up easily. This simple method will also suck up any eggs they may have laid in the carpet, or in the dirt around your houseplants.
