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Sticker of Bagrada bug
Bug card No. 0244 of 4,939

Bagrada bug

Bagrada hilaris
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The bagrada bug is a small black shield bug with white and orange markings. It comes from Africa, but has travelled to other parts of the world. It loves cabbage, broccoli and kale, and big groups of them can ruin a whole field.

Lives in
First from southeastern Africa, now also in India, California, Arizona, Mexico and Chile
Length
5 to 7 mm (0.2 to 0.28 in)
Top speed
about 0.15 km/h (0.09 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
It does not bite or sting people. It is only a problem for vegetables.
What does it eat?
It sucks sap from the leaves of cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips and mustard, and sometimes other crops.
For real!Photo of Bagrada bug
Picture by Davefoc. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Bagrada bug about 7 mm long (0.28 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould run across a dinner table in 24 seconds

How big is Bagrada bug compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

A female can lay up to 100 tiny eggs, which are white at first and turn orange.

2

The babies hatch bright orange-red and turn black as they grow.

3

It suddenly turned up in Los Angeles in 2008, its first time in the Americas.

4

A tiny wasp that lays its eggs in bagrada bug eggs was named Idris elba, after the actor.

5

In Chile it has even come into people's homes.

you asked

Most asked questions about Bagrada bug

?Is the bagrada bug harmful?

Not to people. But it is a big pest for cabbage, broccoli and kale.

?How big is a bagrada bug?

Small, only about 5 to 7 millimetres long.

?What does the bagrada bug eat?

It sucks sap from cabbage, broccoli, kale and their relatives.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Bagrada hilaris
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Pentatomidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Pentatomidae
Lives on
Africa, Asia, North America, South America
Also known as
Painted bug

Where the facts come from

  1. Bagrada hilaris (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Davefoc. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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