Lantana Lace Bug

I'd wondered for the past several years why our Lantanas failed to bloom. The flower buds formed but would turn brown and fall off, and some of the leaves closest to the buds looked like they had spider mite damage. A few weeks ago my husband found some of the tiny bugs on a bud, picked one off and put it under a magnifying glass. So the problem with the Lantanas not blooming has been identified, but now we have the problem of not knowing what to safely use to control the Lantana Lace Bug. We don't want to poison the butterflies and bees that we wanted to attract by planting Lantanas.

Lantana Lace Bug (Teleonemia scrupulosa) is a leaf-sucking bug and causes extensive damage to Lantana camara. It occurs naturally in naturally from Florida and Texas southward through Mexico and Central America to southern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Chile. Although lantana is used as an ornamental, it is also considered to be a weed. The lantana lace bug has been introduced into many countries as a biological control agent to combat lantana. It first was introduced into Hawaii and then into Fiji, Australia, Indonesia and other island groups in the Pacific. In addition, it has become naturalized in India, Mauritius, and South, Central and East Africa. T. scrupulosa is more numerous on the white, red and pink-edged red-flowering varieties of Lantana camara than on the pink-flowerin... read moreg variety. It is 3 to 4 mm length and 1.1 to 1.3 mm width.

I have rated lantana lace bug with a nuetral rating because I sure do'n want it eating my Lantana camara. Yet, the insect is useful in areas where Lantana camara needs to be controlled.