Identifying the Avocado Lace Bug

• Avocado lace bugs feed on avocado, red bay, and camphor trees.
• Adult avocado lace bugs are small-winged insects about 2 mm in length with black bodies, yellow legs and antennae.
• The lace bugs live in colonies on the lower surfaces of leaves, often with adults, eggs and nymphs together.
• Adult avocado lace bugs seldom fly from the leaf surface even when disturbed.
• Eggs are laid in an irregular pattern, sometimes in loose rows, stuck to the lower leaf surface and are covered with irregular globules of a black, sticky, tar-like substance excreted by adults that may protect eggs from natural enemies.
• Eggs will appear like grains of black pepper.

Life cycle of the avocado lace bug

• Avocado lace bug eggs hatch into wingless young called nymphs.
• Nymphs are dark red-brown to black and covered with spines.
• Nymphs feed for approximately two to three weeks before maturing into winged adults, which lay eggs, restarting the life cycle.