Pest Maybe Moving North On Pacific Coast

The Bagrada bug, a small stink bug native to Africa that has never met a cole crop it doesn’t like, has been spotted for the first time in California’s Santa Barbara County.

Surendra Dara, UC Cooperative Extension strawberry and vegetable crops and affiliated IPM advisor, reported the find on his blog, which includes a spectacular picture of Bagrada bugs taking over a pepper plant. Dara reports that early this week, Santa Barbara County Ag Commissioner Entomologist Brian Cabrera received specimens from Solvang, and found infestations of Bagrada bug on mustard in other areas, making an official record of this pest in the county.

For a complete report, check out Surendra’s blog.

Since first being found in Southern California in 2008, the pest has spread throughout the southwestern U.S. wherever cole crops are grown. Now it is apparently moving north, with this week’s find less than 200 miles from Salinas, “America’s Salad Bowl.”

For more information on the pest from John Palumbo, a professor and Extension specialist at the University of Arizona, click here.