Lace Bugs

Family Tingidae

Insectalso: Lacebug

Small, flat insects with intricately lacy wings that suck sap from the undersides of leaves, stippling the tops with a fine yellow speckling. Lace bugs are common on many trees, shrubs, and ornamentals, and while their damage is mostly cosmetic, a heavy infestation can leave foliage looking washed-out and bronzed by late summer.

🔎 How to spot it

Adults are tiny, about an eighth inch, flattened, and rectangular, with clear, intricately sculptured lacy wings; the nymphs are smaller, dark, and spiny. They feed on the leaf undersides, where you will find them along with shiny, dark, varnish-like spots of excrement, a key sign. The damage shows on the upper surface as fine pale stippling or speckling that can spread until the whole leaf looks bleached or bronzed.

🥀 Damage it causes

By sucking sap from the undersides, lace bugs cause the upper leaf surface to stipple, then yellow, bronze, and look washed-out, and heavy feeding causes premature leaf drop and reduced vigor. The injury is mostly cosmetic on established trees and shrubs, but it accumulates over the season and the stippled leaves do not green back up.

🛡️ Prevent it

Keep plants healthy and well-watered, since drought-stressed plants in hot, sunny spots suffer worse lace bug damage, and site susceptible shrubs where they are not baking. Scout the leaf undersides in late spring when the first nymphs appear, since early action keeps damage light. Encourage the lacewings, lady beetles, and other predators that feed on lace bugs.

🧯 If it is already here

A forceful spray of water aimed at the leaf undersides, repeated through the season, knocks down nymphs on small shrubs. For heavier infestations, treat the undersides with insecticidal soap or horticultural oil while the nymphs are young, in mid-spring to early summer, for best effect. No treatment restores already-stippled leaves, which stay marked until they drop or are pruned away.

💡 Good to know

The shiny dark spots of excrement on the leaf undersides are the clue that separates lace bug stippling from the similar speckling of spider mites or leafhoppers. Timing matters: treating the young nymphs in spring works far better than chasing the tougher adults later, and because the damage is mostly cosmetic, healthy plants often need no treatment at all.

🌱 Plants it attacks

28 plants in the library can be attacked by this pest

For educational and informational purposes only. Pest control advice is general guidance drawn from university cooperative extension sources; always identify a pest positively and read and follow the label on any product before use, especially around food crops, children, and pets.