Plane Lace Bug

Plane lace bugs are similar to our other priority pest, oak lace bug, and are also native to North America.

They have been accidentally introduced to mainland Europe but are not known to be in the UK. In 2006 a small population of plane lace bug were found at a plant nursery in Bedfordshire, thought to have arrived on plant imports from Europe. Luckily, they were found at an early stage, so eradication was successful.

Lace bugs are sap feeders, feeding in sap within leaves. Signs to look out for include small, yellow spots on leaves, leaf loss and black spots of frass on the underside of leaves. They are very small, up to 4mm long, making their identification very difficult. For this reason, Observatree volunteers conduct annual surveys for both oak and plane lace bugs by putting out traps in their local trees. These are then analysed under microscope by Forest Research entomologists. So far, no plane or oak lace bugs have been found. For more information on this pest please see the resources below.