Painted Bugs from Africa mating in Mount Washington: Bagrada hilaris

bugman

July 26th, 2009 at 6:19 pm

Tags

July 26, 2009
We noticed some tiny Stink Bugs on our kale and collard greens yesterday, so today we took out the camera and shot some photos. According to BugGuide, this is a new Invasive Exotic species from Africa, Bagrada hilaris. It is a very small Stink Bug, about a quarter of the size of the similarly marked Harlequin Stink Bug we also photographed today. We should try to get one more photo as a size comparison.

mating bagrada hilaris 20090726 300x185 Painted Bugs from Africa mating in Mount Washington: Bagrada hilaris

Mating Invasive Exotic Stink Bugs in our own garden

We went back out with the camera, placed two specimens in the freezer to slow them down, and took the following size comparison photo between Bagrada and Murgantia and then posted the images to BugGuide.

bagrada murgantia compare 300x255 Painted Bugs from Africa mating in Mount Washington: Bagrada hilaris

Bagrada (left) and Murgantia size comparison

The Natural History of Orange County website has a nice page documenting the life history of what the County of Los Angeles Agricultural Commissioner is calling the Painted Bug in a posted pdf entitled Bagrada_hilaris.

Update: We wrote to Stephanie at the US Department of Agriculture
Hi Stephanie,
Apparently this new African Stink Bug was first documented in Los
Angeles and Orange Counties last year. Does anyone need specimens
before I squash what is feeding on my collard greens and kale?
Daniel Marlos

Thanks so much for letting us know. Apparantly, it has been widespread in California for a while now and has been found in La Crescenta, Altadena, Eagle Rock, Pico Rivera, Bell Gardens, Los Angeles, and Long Beach, which are in a roughly 27 x 10 mile swath north-south within the Los Angeles basin in Los Angeles County, California.
Go ahead and squash ‘em. However, I won’t have to put you on the nasty reader list now, would I?
Take care,
Stephanie

Ed. Note: On killing insects
We need to clarify several things here. Nasty readers are people who are rude to us, not people who kill harmless insects and other arthropods out of fear or ignorance. We strive to educate the public regarding fierce looking, but harmless or beneficial creatures that are often squashed or that become unnecessary carnage by other means. We have no ethical problem with the killing of problematic species, and invasive exotic Stink Bugs feeding on our garden crop would be one of those exceptions. We are putting ourselves on blast here: Yes, we will squash all the Bagrada hilaris we find on our produce since we don’t use insecticides in our vegetable patch.

add Painted Bugs from Africa mating in Mount Washington: Bagrada hilaris

I like This

Trackbacks & Pingbacks 4

From African Painted Bugs: Invasive species spreading in California | What's That Bug? on 11 Sep 2009 at 8:20 am ¶
[...] on our own Collard Greens and Kale this summer in our Mount Washington, Los Angeles garden. At that time, we identified it as the Painted Bug, Bagrada hilaris, an African Stink Bug that has been reported [...]
From Painted Bugs Mating: Invasive species from Africa | What's That Bug? on 13 Feb 2010 at 6:08 pm ¶
[...] naaman, We first reported on the Painted Bugs from Africa feeding on our own Collard Greens and Kale in Mount Washington, Los Angeles in July 2009. We [...]
From Stinkbug Invasion | Everyday Biology on 06 Sep 2010 at 5:22 pm ¶
[...] pesticides is to remove the infested plants, cultivate the soil to kill the unhatched eggs, and squash any bugs that remain. Painted Bug (Bagrada [...]
From African Painted Bug makes the LA Times | What's That Bug? on 16 Jan 2011 at 11:37 am ¶
[...] at LACC, sent us this clipping from the LA Times via the post office. The notice ran last week. What’s That Bug? first broke the story of this Invasive Exotic Stink bug species in 2009 when a healthy population was found eating and mating on the collard greens growing at our Mt [...]