Field Identification
A large bright green shield bug that feeds on many fruiting crops, causing dimpling, cloud spots, and aborted seeds in legumes. Adults overwinter and often aggregate before moving to crops.
Adults are shield-shaped, plain green with red banding on antennae in some forms; nymphs pass through black-and-red to green stages.
How to Deal With It
Organic Control Methods
Weed hosts near fields before fruit set; use row cover on beans and solanums until flowering.
Egg parasitoids including Trissolcus basalis and Telenomus spp. are key; flowering strips support them.
Trap crops of millet, buckwheat, or mustard timed ahead of cash crop can pull adults.
Shake bushes into soapy water; vacuum aggregations on trap rows.
Neem or soap directed at nymphs; kaolin on fruit may reduce feeding.
Let Nature Handle It
Natural Enemies
- Trissolcus basalis
- Telenomus spp.
- Assassin Bugs