• Assassin bugs

    Beneficial

    The head is narrow and elongate with the portion behind the eyes neck-like. Sometimes a sculptured crest may be found on the pronotum. The front legs are specialized for hunting.

  • Hover flies

    Beneficial

    The adult is a fly that mimics the coloration of wasps; it often hovers during flight. It is found among aphid colonies, often co-existing with other predators such as the gall midge.

  • Lady beetles

    Beneficial

    Adults are oval and convex in shape, often brightly colored (e.g., orange-red or yellow) and usually with black spots or marks on their wing covers, sometimes with a checkerboard appearance.

  • Minute pirate bug

    Beneficial

    Adults are very similar in size to the mullein plant bug (Campylomma varbasci), but their head is narrower and their wings are colored contrasting white and black.

  • Mullein plant bug

    Beneficial

    Adult is grayish green with black spots on the legs. The nymph resembles an apple aphid or a white apple leafhopper and is solitary, very mobile and lacks cornicles.

  • Phytoseiid mites

    Beneficial

    A dark mark in the form of an "H" sometimes appears within their body. This mark is red when they feed on European red mites and yellow when they feed on twospotted spider mites. They move very rapidly on the leaves.

  • Red velvet mites

    Beneficial

    Balaustium is a large, bright red mite with a tick-like shape and a dense velvet-like covering of dorsal setae.

  • Spiders: Foliage Hunters

    Beneficial

    The body of a spider is divided into two regions, the cephalothorax and abdomen. The cephalothorax bears the eyes (various numbers and arrangements), mouthparts, pedipalps and legs (four pairs), and the unsegmented abdomen bears the genital structures, spiracles, anus and spinnerets (silk-spinning structures).

  • Stigmaeid/"Yellow" mites

    Beneficial, Insect

    Agistemus fleschneri is the principal species found in QC and northern ON orchards, while Zetzellia mali predominates in the US, southern ON and the maritime provinces.