Stink Bugs on Orange: African Painted Bugs perhaps

bugman

October 21st, 2011 at 10:02 am

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Beetles on oranges?
Location: North Cyprus
October 20, 2011 3:04 pm
I am trying to identify this to see if it is harmful to the oranges and other citrus trees around.
Signature: Richard

painted bugs orange cyprus richard 300x226 Stink Bugs on Orange: African Painted Bugs perhaps

African Painted Bugs, we believe

Hi Richard,
We hope we are wrong on this identification. These sure look to us like African Painted Bugs, Bagrada hilaris, a tiny Stink Bug that was first reported in Southern California a few years ago. It is spreading fast. It is typically found in association with crops in the cabbage family. We tried a web search for citrus and found photos of an lemon tree infested with African Painted Bugs on an Arizona Education Extension website. We predicted several years ago that the African Painted Bug could become the most serious new agricultural pest in Southern California. Perhaps the African Painted Bug has also been accidentally introduced to Cyprus.

Thank you so much for your reply Daniel, I shall let you know what happens, I may need to report this to the Ministry of Agriculture here.