Potato Leafhopper
Empoasca fabae
📖 Description
The potato leafhopper is a major pest of many crops, causing the distinctive condition known as ‘hopperburn’ through its toxic saliva injected during feeding. This saliva disrupts the plant’s vascular system, causing V-shaped yellowing and browning at leaf tips that progresses inward. Unlike many pests that arrive gradually, potato leafhoppers are carried northward each spring by weather fronts, arriving suddenly in large numbers. They are particularly damaging to potatoes, beans, and alfalfa, where they can cause yield losses of 50% or more in severe infestations. Their small size and rapid movement make them difficult to detect until hopperburn symptoms appear.
⚠️ Symptoms to watch for
- Hopperburn — V-shaped yellowing and browning at leaf tips and margins
- Curling and stunting of new leaves
- Leaf edges turning brown and papery (necrosis)
- Stunted plant growth and reduced yields
- Small green insects jumping from foliage when disturbed
- Severe defoliation in heavy infestations
🩹 Treatment
- Apply insecticidal soap to leaf undersides (organic)
- Use neem oil spray to deter feeding (organic)
- Apply kaolin clay as a protective barrier on foliage (organic)
- Spray with pyrethrin-based insecticide (organic)
- Apply systemic imidacloprid or thiamethoxam (chemical)
- Use carbaryl (Sevin) spray on affected crops (chemical)
🌿 Organic treatments
- Apply insecticidal soap to leaf undersides
- Use neem oil spray to deter feeding
- Apply kaolin clay as a protective barrier on foliage
- Spray with pyrethrin-based insecticide
🧪 Chemical treatments
- Apply systemic imidacloprid or thiamethoxam
- Use carbaryl (Sevin) spray on affected crops
🛡️ Prevention
- Use floating row covers on susceptible crops early in the season
- Monitor with yellow sticky traps for early adult detection
- Plant early-maturing varieties to escape peak leafhopper activity
- Remove alfalfa and weed hosts near crop fields
- Encourage natural predators like damsel bugs and lacewings
- Use reflective mulch to deter leafhopper landing
🪴 Affected plants
- Potatoes
- Beans
- Alfalfa
- Apples
- Grapes
🦋 Natural predators
- Spiders
- Predatory Bugs
- Parasitic Wasps
🌱 Host plants
- Solanum tuberosum
- Medicago sativa
- Phaseolus vulgaris
🔄 Lifecycle
- Adults cannot overwinter in northern climates and are carried northward each spring by storm fronts, arriving in May-June.
- Females insert eggs into leaf veins and stems.
- Eggs hatch in 7-10 days.
- Nymphs develop through 5 instars over 10-14 days.
- Adults live 1-2 months and produce 200-300 eggs.
- Multiple generations occur through the summer with populations building rapidly.
- Populations decline in fall as adults migrate south.
📅 Season
- Late Spring to Fall (arrives on weather fronts in May-June)
🔎 Appearance
- Small, wedge-shaped, bright green insects that move rapidly sideways when disturbed.
- Adults have white eyes and are excellent jumpers.
- Nymphs are similar but smaller, paler, and wingless, moving with a distinctive sideways scuttling motion.
- They are very active and readily jump or fly when approached.
💥 Damage level
- High
🔁 Reproduction rate
- Fast
🗺️ Geographic regions
- North America
- Central America
Have an Insect to Identify?
Upload or take a photo of an insect on your plant and our AI will identify it and recommend treatments.
📷 Diagnose from Image