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Sticker of Red cabbage bug
Bug card No. 3500 of 4,939

Red cabbage bug

Eurydema ornata
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The red cabbage bug is a small shield bug, red or grey with a bold black pattern. Some of them have white or yellow-green patches instead of red. Its body is shaped like a little shield.

Lives in
Europe, North Africa and southern and western Asia, in open places with low plants
Length
7 to 8 mm (0.28 to 0.31 in)
Top speed
about 0.16 km/h (0.1 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It can damage cabbage crops.
What does it eat?
It sucks the juice of cabbage, cress, radish and other plants of the cabbage family.
For real!Photo of Red cabbage bug
Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Red cabbage bug about 8 mm long (0.31 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 22 seconds

How big is Red cabbage bug compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It spends the winter as a grown-up bug.

2

Its babies are pale yellow and orange with dark marks.

3

Gardeners do not like it, because it can damage cabbage and radish plants.

you asked

Most asked questions about Red cabbage bug

?Is the red cabbage bug harmful?

It is harmless to people, but it can damage cabbage, cress and radish plants.

?What does the red cabbage bug eat?

It sucks the juice of cabbage family plants.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Eurydema ornata
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Pentatomidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Pentatomidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Eurydema ornata (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 Hectonichus. 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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