Painted Bugs

bugman

September 2nd, 2010 at 8:39 am

Tags

Who am I?
Location: San Diego, CA
September 2, 2010 1:22 am
So, we found these bugs everywhere on the new vegetables that we planted. It is some sort of chinese green vegetable. ( not sure which one, as my kids dumped all the seeds in the dirt =). There are tons of them on the ground near the sprouts and all up in them. What are they, and from the picture it looks like they are reproducing. So how do i get rid of them if they are harmful to my new plants?
Jeanine

Mating Painted Bugs

Hi Jeanine,
In our opinion, the African Painted Bugs, Bagrada hilaris, which were first reported in California just two years ago, will go down in history as being one of the most problematic Exotic Invasive agricultural pests due to their fondness for sucking the juices from plants in the cabbage family. We first noticed hoards of them on our collard greens last summer. It seems mating is the main objective of every adult, and mating pairs like the ones in your photograph seem to be more common than single individuals.

FUN! thank you so much for identifying it for us! my kids will be delighted. Do you know any ways to rid of it?
jeanine