The andromeda lace bugs can have four or five generations a year in Connecticut. Injury Lace bugs feed by sucking juice from plant leaves, extracting the protein they need and excreting the excess juice as honeydew. The most common symptom of feeding is the stippled and mottled yellowish foliage. In heavy infestations, black sooty mold, a nonparasitic fungus, may develop on the honeydew. If leaves become covered with sooty mold, photosynthesis production is reduced, thereby reducing the production of carbohydrates needed by the plant.
Damage is most severe on plants in full sun.
Heavily damaged leaves become blanched and yellowish grey and may drop from the plant. This often results in some dieback of twigs and branches and a reduction in flowering the following spring. To control lace bugs, thoroughly spray the undersides of the leaves as soon as nymphs appear in mid-May. Horticultural oil or insecticidal soap are organic controls for lace bugs. Stronger controls registered for lace bugs are acephate, carbaryl, cblorpyrifos, cyfluthrin, fenpropathrin, malathion or pyrethrin.