Aphids, or plant lice, feed on most vegetable crops, many houseplants and many ornamentals grown in New Hampshire, as well as numerous weeds and wild plants. With their awesome reproductive abilities aphids can build up in large numbers in a very short period of time.

The Colorado Potato Beetle (CPB) became a pest when settlers brought potatoes into the Rocky Mountain area, the native habitat of this beetle. The beetle preferred the potato to its host weed and has spread to become a serious pest throughout the US and Eastern Canada.The CPB feeds on the leaves and terminal growth of nightshade-family plants, such as potato, tomato, and eggplant. The potato, however, is its preferred plant. The above-ground destruction of potato plants can cause severe reduction in tuber size and overall yield.

Cutworms are the larval form of dozens of different species of small brown or tan, banded moths. Depending on the species, cutworms damage plants in several ways.

The European corn borer (ECB, family Pyralidae, order Lepidoptera) arrived in North America during the early 1900s, probably in broom corn imported from Hungary and Italy for the manufacture of brooms.

The name flea beetle describes many species of small beetles that chew tiny shot-holes in plant foliage and jump around like fleas when disturbed. Although some species feed on a wide range of plants, most FB species attack a single species or family of related plants.

The imported cabbageworm (ICW), the larval form of the delicate white butterflies that flutter around the summer garden, is a serious pest of cabbage-family crops.

Slugs are slimy, soft-bodied, grayish, orange or brownish mottled mollusks - snails without shells. Slugs vary in length up to 4 inches and leave a slimy silver-colored trail wherever they travel. They can become serious pests in and around the home, garden, and greenhouse.

The Striped Cucumber Beetle (CB), Acalymma vittata (Fab.), is one of the most devastating pests of cucurbits (cucumbers, summer and winter squashes, all types of melons and pumpkins) east of the Rocky Mountains. Both adults and larvae feed on cucurbit crops. This insect is also responsible for the spread of plant diseases such as bacterial wilt and cucumber mosaic.

Among the several species of plant bugs that invade New Hampshire fruit, vegetable and ornamental crops, the one that does the most damage is the tarnished plant bug (TPB), Lygus lineolaris.