Fact Sheet

General Information: Nabids are a beneficial predators that live in many crops including cotton, corn and alfalfa. Adults and nymphs capture and feed on caterpillars, aphids, flea hoppers, lygus, leafhoppers, mites and insect eggs.

Description: Adults are 3/8 to 3/4 inches long, tan to brown with a slender body. Nymphs look like adults but lack fully developed wings. Nabids have "raptorial" front legs that they use to grab and hold prey with and a beak, or rostrum, which they use to pierce their prey and suck out it's bodily fluids.

Life Cycle: Adult nabid females insert eggs onto the stems of low-growing plants. Eggs hatch with in a few days into nymphs. Nymphs develop through five stages in about 50 days. Adults spend the winter in ground cover.