Field Identification
A chunky bruchid beetle that lays eggs on developing pea pods so larvae bore straight into seeds—your jar of soup peas becomes a weevil condo if you save seed from infested pods. Adults overwinter and migrate to pea fields in spring.
Mottled gray-brown beetles about 5 mm with a short snout; round exit holes appear in dry peas. Unlike pea/bean seed beetles that attack only stored grain, B. pisorum damages pods in the field.
How to Deal With It
Organic Control Methods
Pyrethrin or spinosad timed to adult flight and egg-lay on flowers/pods—coverage must reach pod surfaces; repeat per label during peak migration.
Tiny parasitic wasps in the families Braconidae and Pteromalidae attack bruchid larvae inside pods where they occur; generalist predators take adults at rest.
Rotate peas away from previous sites; use earliest possible planting to evade peak flights where climate allows; destroy crop residues; do not save seed from suspect pods—freeze or heat-treat seed if regulations allow for home use.
Vacuum or sweep adults from field edges at dawn; harvest promptly before full pod dry-down in heavy-pressure years.
Pheromone traps for monitoring; border trap crops of early peas; inspect purchased seed.
Let Nature Handle It
Natural Enemies
- Parasitic Wasps (Braconidae)
- Parasitic Wasps (Pteromalidae)
- Predatory Beetles
- Birds
Threat Map