Normally the false chinch bug is a pest of potatoes, beets, cabbage, cotton, corn and sorghums. Recently the bugs have been found feeding on first year containerized longleaf pine seedlings.
Damage appears to be worse in arid fields and where a total broadcast of herbicides was used.
Insectides are effective in killing the false chinch bug, but due to their migration habits, a recently sprayed field can be re-infested within days following the insecticide application. The bugs normally increase during early spring and summer, principally on weeds. During droughts or in fields where herbicides have been used, weeds are either absent are less succulent and the bugs migrate to other hosts such as pine. Damage is done by their piercing-sucking mouthparts. They remove sap from the needles causing the needles to wilt and die.