The life cycle of Empoasca vitis and its most important parasitoid Anagrus atomus in southern Switzerland can be divided into three phases. In phase I the adults of E. vitis move from overwintering sites, i.e. primarily conifers, over deciduous plants into the vineyards. The parasitoid A. atomus on the other hand, appears to overwinter in leafhopper eggs, mainly on roses and blackberries. It subsequently completes one generation in leafhopper eggs primarily on blackberries and hazelnuts, before it attacks E. vitis eggs in the vineyards. For phase II, a population model with time‐varying age structures and stochastic properties was constructed for E. vitis. For this purpose a time‐varying distributed delay model with attrition was constructed. Given the calibrated initial density of overwintering females, the model predicts an unacceptable number of E. vitis for the growing season. However, if egg parasitism of A. atomus and Stethynium triclavatum is introduced into the model as an external variable E. vitis densities are predicted which are economically irrelevant. Inphase III E. vitis adults leave the vineyards for the overwintering sites. The model shows the importance of the parasitoid A. atomus during phase II. A. atomus should be favoured by surrounding the vineyards with host plants carrying leafhoppers’ eggs. Consequently, habitat management measures for E. vitis control could be applied to the surroundings of the vineyards.