By Kris Holmstrom and Joe Ingerson-Mahar,
IPM personnel, Tonia Broen and Joe Ingerson-Mahar have found heavy populations of Hawaiian beet webworm moths in 3 beet fields in East Vineland (Cumberland and
Atlantic Counties) in addition to a baby spinach field and field offenugreek in the
Franklinville area (Gloucester County). Another field of mixed greens in the Princeton
area (Mercer County) was found by Kris Holmstrom to have a sizeable population of
HBWW adults in the weedy borders. The fenugreek was the most heavily infested of all the fields with two to three times the number of moths that the other fields had. When discovered, there was no sign of larval feeding.
Hawaiian Beet Webworm Moth
Damage comes from both chewing holes in leaves (0 tolerance in baby spinach) and holes and webbing for all the greens, especially bad for processing spinach. Primary hosts are beets, chard, spinach, and edible amaranth. HBWW does feed on weeds including pigweeds, lambsquarters, and purslane. It takes about 4 days for eggs to hatch and 9-13 days for larvae to mature.
Several years ago, this pest appeared in October, causing extreme injury to spinach, beet and chard plantings before its presence was discovered. At this time, all growers from the central counties on south should check fields of known hosts for the presence of HBWW feeding.
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