Divisi
Mosquito bug (Helopeltis)
Helopeltis · Insect
Photo: Vengolis · CC BY-SA 4.0
The mosquito bug (Helopeltis) is a slender, long-legged sap-sucking bug — about the size of a mosquito, with a tiny pin-like knob standing straight up on the middle of its back — that attacks tree and bush crops such as cashew, cocoa, tea, guava and black pepper. Both the young bugs (nymphs) and the winged adults stab the soft new leaves, flower sprays and young nuts or fruit and inject a toxic spit that kills the tissue around each puncture, leaving dark, sunken, scabby spots. When it strikes during flushing and flowering it blackens the flower sprays, deforms and drops the young fruit, and kills back the shoot tips.
Roy Bateman · CC BY-SA 3.0 
Rison Thumboor · CC BY-SA 4.0
Why it matters
The mosquito bug is one of the worst pests of cashew, cocoa and tea — a heavy hit during flowering and fruiting can wipe out more than half your crop (up to 60%). It is hard to shake once it settles in: your trees keep pushing out the soft new flush and flowers that feed it, the bugs are shy and hide on the shaded underside where you miss them, and a blackened flower spray or a scarred young nut never heals — that yield is simply gone. Its feeding wounds also let dieback rots in, killing the shoot tips from the top down. That is why opening up the canopy and catching it early, on the new flush, matters far more than spraying once the damage is already done.
When to act
Fresh feeding lesions on new flush, panicles or young nuts and fruit, or bugs seen on tender shoots during flushing and flowering.
This guidance is general, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. Thresholds and timing shift with your crop, your variety and the season.
In much of the region a spray is simply called mushonga — medicine. But a chemical group you cannot name is one you cannot rotate, and a product you did not write down has no pre-harvest interval you can observe. Mushonga, and other farming words →
The full mosquito bug (helopeltis) field guide
- Identify it
- Scout for it
- Control it
17 field-guide sections in the app
The full guide to mosquito bug (helopeltis) — every symptom to check, how and when to walk your field looking for it, and the controls that actually work, ranked. Built into your crop plan, so you are told to look before it costs you a harvest.
Crops it affects
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify mosquito bug (helopeltis)?
Look at the soft new leaves and shoot tips first. The earliest sign is many small dark-brown to black sunken spots and streaks, like little scabs or dried water-blisters, often bunched together where the bug fed over and over. A fresh spot may weep a bead of gum or look water-soaked, then dries down to a black, sunken scar.
When should I take action against mosquito bug (helopeltis)?
Fresh feeding lesions on new flush, panicles or young nuts and fruit, or bugs seen on tender shoots during flushing and flowering.
How do I control mosquito bug (helopeltis)?
Prevent it — open up the tree. The mosquito bug loves warm, damp, shady, crowded canopies (still, humid air is where it thrives). Prune your trees so light and air pass right through, cut out crowded and dead wood, and clear weeds and bushy plants around them. A drier, airier canopy is far less welcoming to the bug.
Which crops does mosquito bug (helopeltis) affect?
Among the crops covered here: Cashew, Cocoa, Guava, Tea.
Catch it before it costs you a harvest
Divisi builds scouting into your crop plan — it tells you when to walk your field, what to look for at that stage, and what to do when you find it. Free for farmers, works offline.
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