Coreopsis is also called tickseed that is a perennial plant with daisylike flowers. It is easy to care for it. Tickseed, including its low-maintenance requirements, can be attacked by snails, slugs, aphids, and other garden insects. The type of insect infesting the tickseed plants determines the control solutions for these pests. You may need to use pesticides if injecting snails, slugs, sap-sucking insects, and chewing insects with an intense stream of the water haven’t succeeded.
In your garden, these kinds of pests are uncommon.
However, when you get an infestation, you will need to get rid of it as soon as possible.
These coreopsis beetles are known as a dangerous infestation, and you need to take action immediately if you don’t want your coreopsis to have holes in the jagged foliage, chewed down roots, and branches.
Now let’s start!
What Are coreopsis beetles?
Contents
The coreopsis tickseed beetles are unique beetles with peculiar shapes on their backs.
This small 1/4 inch insect that can destroy tickseed plants is the bane of some gardeners.
It’s popular in nurseries, gardens, and other places where the tickseed is planted in thick clusters. In their wake, they can damage the leaves.
While their infestations aren’t usual, they’re a pain to treat when you get one.
Since these beetles have a thick body, they are resistant to a variety of pest control strategies.
They eat coreopsis nearly entirely (tickweed or AKA tickseed).
If you have this insect, the best way to eradicate it is to uproot the coreopsis plants from your garden.
Of course, you are not here for that. You need to save the coreopsis plants by eliminating the beetles.
That is the reason why you have come here.
Let’s look at how to treat, control, and remove these pests naturally.
Other names of Coreopsis beetles
These pests have some other names that you may recognize.
There are all nicknames for the same beetle:
- Coreopsis ladybug
- Calligrapha californica
- Coreopsis leaf beetle
- Striped ladybug
- Orange ladybug
- Tickweed beetle
- Tickseed beetle
What Do Coreopsis Beetles Look Like?
The coreopsis tickseed beetle is a tiny Beetle that can be seen by the naked eye. And it’s about 1/4 inches long and resembles a ladybug.
Due to the patterning, it’s always mistaken with both of them, but both of the colors are entirely different.
The color of their body is dark. And they have yellow stripes that that are parallel to the head.
If you have ever known about a potato beetle, the coreopsis tickseed beetles are similar to them.
They resemble ladybugs, but their backs have distinct shapes. If you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to be mistaken for them.
However, if you look carefully, you’ll see them munching on your coreopsis tucked within the wedge between leaves.
The backs of ladybugs have spots. About coreopsis beetles, they have stripes.
That’s the simplest way to know the difference between ladybugs and coreopsis beetles.
Six visible legs and two antennae protrude from the head. The back legs are long and strong. The body has three visible parts.
The lines alternate between black and yellow or orange. They start at the head and go their way down to the rear. It’s common to see four orange stripes and three black stripes.
Life cycle
Coreopsis beetles are the same as other garden beetles (asparagus beetles, cucumber beetles, potato beetles, larder beetles, bean beetles).
In the summer, the adult coreopsis beetles are most active, and then they will mate and lay their eggs in thick vegetation.
You can find some eggs they lay at the base of the coreopsis plants. In the autumn, the adults look for a host plant to infest, and the eggs can hatch after the three seasons.
Female beetles that are pregnant have a larger size.
And They hibernate in the winter.
The eggs will hatch as the weather warms up again the next spring. The tiny larvae of coreopsis beetles will emerge and eat the coreopsis.
Then, they will do a lot of damage to your coreopsis. The leaves provide the food for the larvae. They will even suck on the roots, causing them to become shorter. Some coreopsis plants are tall, and some others are very short.
Where do Coreopsis Beetles hide?
The Coreopsis Beetles don’t like hiding. Because of the stark difference in their skins, they are identifiable on the leaves and branches.
On green leaves, the black/yellow streaks are very simple to detect, so it is easy to pick them up manually and then throw them into the soapy water.
Adults can be found hanging at the base of the coreopsis plant, searching for a place to lay their eggs.
To avoid predators or direct sunlight, the larvae may hide under the leaves. These tickseed beetles are very active during the spring and summer, while it is easy to find them.
Signs of coreopsis beetle damage
Coreopsis beetle damage is easy to check. If you find many coreopsis beetles, act quickly to prevent your whole tickseed from being damaged.
Keep in mind that coreopsis beetles come out in the summer and, after that, go dormant. And you can expect them to return when the weather warms up again if you find them to eat your plants and then unexpectedly disappear.
They won’t leave until your tickseed is fully depleted. Don’t take it for granted that the issue has been resolved. Take action!
There are a few typical symptoms of the damage to be aware of:
- Green leaves have been stripped from skeletonized leaves.
- Veins are consumed between the veins of the leaves.
- Harm to the stem
- Beetles can be found on the tickseed plant
- Chewing has left leaves with irregular or jagged edges.
- New leaves are being consumed or are being destroyed.
- The leaves have holes in them at random.
- It’s possible that beetle activity is causing all of these effects on your coreopsis.
It seems that They don’t like eating the flowers. They simply like feeding on the stems and leaves.
Where Are tickseed beetles found?
As coreopsis beetles only consume tickseed, they can be found anywhere that has tickseed.
This is usually seen in USDA hardiness zones from 4 to 10.
Unless you purchase the plants from the infested places, you don’t need to deal with them if you grow them in a greenhouse or indoors.
What do they eat?
Tickseed is the only food source for the coreopsis beetle. It can also be present on other trees, although it does not infest them.
They can eat other plants of the same breed as coreopsis (Asteraceae), while they tend to eat coreopsis when these plants are available.
It can be seen eating other asters such as ragweed, dahlia, or zinnia. The flowers that resemble daisies can be seen on any of these flowers.
They like freshly sprouted leaves.
Coreopsis beetles love to eat seedlings or fresh leaves that sprout from the stems. They will eat the leaves because they are fluffy, tender, and full of nutrients.
Tickseed is consumed by both larvae and adults. They eat coreopsis as if it were their favorite food.
It’s very likely that these beetles are responsible for your tickseed leaves being shredded. Look for popular coreopsis beetle infestation signals and proceed from there.
These kinds of beetles are periodic pests because they only exist and eat the tickseed for a short time.
And They vanish for some time. This will cause many gardeners to relax their guard, only thinking that the pests go away by themselves.
On the other hand, they are only going dormant until they’re able to eat your tickseed again soon.
What is eating your tickseed?
The big flowers and abundant foliage of tickseed offer a tasty meal for a variety of insects.
The following are some of the most common coreopsis pests found in gardens:
- Coreopsis Leaf beetles
- Coreopsis Beetles
- Aphids
- Snails
- Slugs
How to get rid of tickseed beetles Naturally
The important thing you need to know is that these tickseed beetles are difficult to eradicate fully.
Though many solutions may help you decrease their population, there isn’t anything that can fully eliminate them.
If you’re coping with the coreopsis leaf beetles, you must know that this kind of bug is very new to the field of pests.
If you try to prevent your coreopsis from being damaged, you will fail.
To eliminate tickseed beetles naturally, there are a variety of DIY home remedies.
Depending on your case, you can begin with the simplest way and then work your way up to the other ones.
Always use restraint and common sense when using any homemade remedy. Always use appropriate tools, and read product manuals before using them and follow directions!
With these remedies, you should be able to make a difference in the beetle population. Write a comment and let other readers know if you have any additional tricks or guides for getting rid of them!
Insecticidal soap
Insecticidal soap is available at some hardware stores. Though the soaps are healthy for animals, pets, and humans, still read the product label before using them.
There are a lot of natural products on the market. Choose these to reduce the exposure to potentially harmful substances. They’ll need to be diluted and applied with a manual hand sprayer.
Caterpillars, mites, whiteflies, aphids, Beetles, and other pests can be killed by the soap.
When temperatures are high, avoid using it because it coats the coreopsis, which can cause it to burn. Follow the directions on the package and read them all before using it. If the soap isn’t licensed for edibles, don’t use it.
Sticky traps
Tickseed beetles and other bugs can be caught passively using sticky traps. Traps in the shape of sticky traps or domes baited with a beetle attractant may be used.
Once the beetles get in, they can not come out.
Any of them are lined with chemicals that destroy beetles.
Purchase some sticky tape and use it to line the perimeter of the tickseed flower bed. You can use the stakes to insert around the plot.
Then, from one stake to another stake, tie the adhesive tape.
Tickseed Beetles crawling through it would get trapped. And Place it near the soil’s surface to capture any beetle that comes into contact with it.
Clean up the garden
Garden pests adore unkempt yards that are overgrown with weeds.
When a garden is neglected, overgrown, or just overrun by clutter, it attracts anything from snails to grasshoppers.
Do a thorough sweep of your garden over one or two weekends. After cleaning your garden one time, what you have to do now is keep it tidy.
Yes, it is inconvenient and time-consuming. However, it helps to prevent bugs from entering your house.
Here are few suggestions for making your yard less attractive to pests:
- Lawn mowing
- Grass clippings can never be left behind.
- Clean up the leaf litter and get rid of any plants that aren’t required.
- Pruning your plants is important.
Though this job will spend you a lot of time, they can help you keep your garden clean. In general, a tidy garden with few hiding areas means fewer bugs.
Consider this: Once a pest exists in your garden and finds a plant to feed, it will live there. Then more bugs will get in.
Then bigger pests will emerge that eat all bugs. You need to know that.
It benefits overall if you keep it tidy and avoid hiding spots by pruning your plants and removing excess foliage.
Consider hiring a gardener to assist you if you don’t have the time.
Pruning
Keep your coreopsis in good shape by pruning it regularly.
Overgrown weeds and leaves can make your garden damp and increase atmospheric humidity, attracting a variety of moisture-loving insects such as darkling beetles and soldier beetles.
The leaves even filter out sunshine, attracting bugs that like the darkened environments. You should also be keeping your garden tidy and pruned to prevent it from being overgrown.
This would prevent bugs from getting into your garden. Pruning the tickseed would also allow more flowers and reduce fungal problems caused by humidity levels or poor circulation.
Use soapy water
Beetles are killed almost immediately when you use the soap water. Spray some tickseed beetles you find with a quart of the water diluted with a couple of teaspoons of the dish detergent.
For manual removal, the dish soap may also be used in a bucket. You will destroy tickseed beetles by picking them up and throwing them into the soapy water.
Before adding the soap solution to the whole area:
- Test it on a specific portion of your garden.
- If it is too intense, add more water or less soap to dilute it.
- Check for plant damage after 48 hours.
Hire a professional
If you don’t have time to do it yourself, try contracting a licensed exterminator to remove the beetles.
They have access to solutions and products that the general public would not have.
Before choosing one local company, just read the comments. It is better to choose the natural compounds if possible.
