Insects are usually identified by shape, color and size. Once they have hatched, however, it is usually too late to act when it comes to pests. It is therefore worthwhile to be able to identify the insect eggs.

In a nutshell

  • For better camouflage, insect eggs usually match the color of the preferred storage location
  • Insect species are difficult to tell apart based on egg color alone
  • only in connection with storage location, clutch type etc. can individual species be identified with comparative certainty

butterflies

Types from A - J

Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

  • Egg color: green
  • Storage location: upper side of nettle leaves
  • Other features: Storage usually singly or in pairs

Bear moth (arctiidae)

  • Egg color: beige, yellow or (dark) brown
  • Storage location: often on house walls, natural stone walls or rocks
  • Other features: small, very round egg shape, filing in heaps

Notice: The different species of bear moths prefer to feed on lichens. That is why their clutches are mainly found where lichens grow, both in nature and in man-made environments.

Birch Moth (Endromis versicolora)

  • Egg color: dark brown to black, empty shells later found white
  • Deposit: along tree branches in dense, long rows
  • Other features: very large clutches, easily recognizable with the naked eye, strongly geometric laying shape

Types from K - Z

Lesser Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

  • Egg color: green
  • Storage location: preferably under the leaf underside of nettles
  • Other features: Filing mostly in small, stacked heaps

Lesser Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)

  • Egg color: white to yellowish
  • Place of storage: Upper and lower side of leaves, often also near the buds
  • Other features: narrow, elongated egg shape, similar to a grain of rice, usually deposited singly or in pairs

Notice: The elongated, slender shape of the insect eggs is typical of all whites and can therefore not be used as a characteristic of a single species, such as the cabbage white, which is considered a pest!

Swallowtail (Papilio machaon)

  • Egg color: initially white, after a few days brown-red, just before hatching black
  • Storage location: upper side of the leaves of various umbellifers
  • Other features: oviposition individually, strongly contrasted, easily recognizable color changes in the course of development

Swallowtail Butterfly (Iphiclides podalirius)

  • Egg color: white
  • Place of storage: prefers rose plants (Rosaceae)
  • Other characteristics: Oviposition always distributed individually over leaves

Tensioners (Geometridae)

  • Egg color: white to light yellow
  • Place of deposit: usually well hidden, but often not placed in a targeted manner by being dropped from a perch (twig, leaf, etc.) into nature
  • Other features: Single shelf, often very difficult to find, elongated, bulbous, spherical shape

Brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni)

  • Egg color: light to dark yellow
  • Place of storage: Often deposited in small groups near the tips of the leaves
  • Other features: narrow, elongated egg shape
Source: Harald Süpfle, Gonepteryx rhamni egg 02 (HS), edited by Plantopedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

hygiene pests

Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius)

  • Egg color: white
  • Storage location: in typical hiding places behind wallpaper, baseboards, pictures, in wall and floor cracks, etc.
  • Other features: clutch of up to 200 eggs, glued to the place where they are laid

Fleas (Siphonaptera)

  • Egg color: white translucent
  • Storage location: at the whereabouts of the respective hosts (people, dogs, cats) in cracks, niches or behind loose wallpaper, coverings, etc.
  • Other features: The frequency of clutches often indicates the condition of the host, e.g. intense occurrence in weakened, sick or even dead hosts in the area

Pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis)

  • Egg color: white to yellowish
  • Place of storage: only inside the nests, usually in cracks and joints in floors, walls and ceilings, as well as behind loose cladding
  • Other characteristics: oval-round egg shape

Notice: Although the eggs are only laid in nests, opening the hiding places can reveal them. This is because the nest structures are often destroyed in the process.

Ticks (Ixodes ricinus)

  • Egg color: reddish-brown
  • Storage location: on the forest floor
  • Other characteristics: small, clumpy clutches of up to 4,000 eggs

storage pests

bread beetle (Stegobium paniceum)

  • Egg color: white brownish
  • Storage location: directly in starchy foods or in joints and cracks in their vicinity
  • Other features: Storage as a clutch of up to 60 small, round eggs

Dried fruit moths (Plodia interpunctella) / flour moths (Ephestia kuehniella)

  • Egg color: white
  • Storage location: in food or in the immediate vicinity
  • Other characteristics: loose clutches of around 200 to 400 eggs per female
eggs of dried fruit moths; Source: Sarefo, Plodia.interpunctella.eggs, edited by Plantopedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Meal Beetle (Tenebrio molitor)

  • Egg color: glossy milky white
  • Storage location: directly in starchy foods such as bread, flour, etc.
  • Other characteristics: Insect eggs, up to 2 millimeters in size, are deposited in small groups, adhering to the deposit location due to the sticky surface

Bacon beetle (Dermestes lardarius)

  • Egg color: milky white
  • Storage location: directly in food, as well as dead wood (e.g. feeding passages of woodworms)
  • Other features: sticky clusters of eggs that stick to the chosen culture medium

Other insects

Clothes moth (Tineola bisselliella)

  • Egg color: whitish to yellowish, sometimes greyish
  • Storage location: in textile folds or between wool fibers, fur hair, etc.
  • Other characteristics: Insect eggs are usually deposited singly, more rarely in small groups
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tineola_bisselliella#/media/File:CSIRO_ScienceImage_2070_Eggs_of_the_Clothes_Moth.jpg.webp

Ladybird (Coccinellidae)

  • egg color; yellow, gray-yellow to gray shortly before hatching
  • Storage location: underside of leaves
  • Other features: roundish oval shape, stored in upright groups on the undersides of the leaves
Source: böhringer friedrich, ladybird eggs 03, edited by Plantopedia, CC BY-SA 2.5

frequently asked Questions

Can pests be identified on their eggs?

In practice, many harmful or at least annoying animals cannot be identified by their egg color and shape. The animals carry the eggs in leg or belly pockets, so you will not find any clutches.

How do I distinguish the many white insect eggs?

The eggs of different insect species can hardly be distinguished by color and shape alone without much specialist knowledge. Instead, the place where it was found, i.e. the place chosen by the mother to lay her eggs, usually gives more precise information about the insect species found.

Are insect eggs harmful in the apartment?

As a rule, there is no active danger from the eggs themselves. However, they are repeatedly placed in food, which then becomes unusable. And at the latest the maggots that hatch from them, as well as the developing beetles or moths, can lead to significant impairments of everyday life.

Category:

Animals in the garden