If you decide to leave your pumpkins in the field, it is imperative that you maintain your insect and disease spray program. The potato leafhopper, Empoasca fabae, is a pest that is easy to overlook until the damage called hopperburn-burns you. Due to it s feeding habits, it can cause damage that is out of proportion to it s density. Most problems in vegetables show up in snap beans for potatoes, but it is capable of successful reproduction on over 200 plants species in 25 different families, including alfalfa, potatoes, beans, peanuts, and woody ornamentals. Potato leafhopper is a transient pest of apples, grapes, celery, rhubarb, and clover to name a few.
Densities are typically highest in alfalfa.
The potato leafhopper overwinters to the south of us. Migrant source populations develop in the Gulf States in early spring, where they overwinter on legume host plants, but may also be found on a variety of native, evergreen plants. It has been tentatively demonstrated that the potato leafhopper feeds on loblolly pine, and the leafhopper s overwintering area spans the entire southern pine region and may extend into coastal areas where evergreen hosts are available. These migrants arrive in Pennsylvania during the spring and early summer and they move northward, recolonizing its entire range from its overwintering source. The summer range spans most of the temperate latitudes east of 100 longitude.