Pest Profile

These bugs are similar in size and appearance to chinch bugs. However, false chinch bug nymphs are grayish to brown, sometimes tinged with yellow, rather than bright orange. Adults are gray to brown with transparent wings, whereas chinch bug adults are black with white wings with a black triangle. False chinch bugs appear to spend very little time on sorghum plants, but when populations are abundant, stand reductions can occur. False chinch bug adults can also swarm into sorghum fields later in the season. Infestations averaging 140 bugs per panicle during milk stage are considered damaging. However, swarms of adults usually are very spotty and unless several spots are present, it is usually hard to justify a field-wide treatment. False chinch bugs can occasionally become abundant when conditions favor their survival on various weed hosts, particularly wild mustards. They have a wide host range and as many as four generations per year. Fields planted no-till into wheat stubble where weed control was delayed until just before planting and fields bordering weedy areas are most at risk.