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Invasive pest alert

NollieNollie Posts: 7,024
Halyomorpha halys - Doesn’t seem to be very widespread in the UK yet, but one to watch out for on your beloved fruit trees, tomatoes, sweetcorn etc. Have just received a fact sheet on them from our local council so it appears they are here. In fact, I am pretty sure it was the stink bug breeding on my potatoes and tomatoes last summer…

Not suggesting anyone goes out to enact biological warfare, they didn’t seem to do any damage to my spuds, but I did get some boring/munching of my toms so it’s possible these were the culprits.

Found this defra info:
https://planthealthportal.defra.gov.uk/assets/factsheets/Halyomorpha-halys-Defra-Pest-Factsheet-March-2021-FINAL.pdf
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,116
    Thanks @Nollie.   I shall keep an eye out for that one.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • floraliesfloralies Posts: 2,305
    Thanks @Nollie, we have brown and green shield/stink bugs here so will take a closer look at the brown ones.
  • 2000GTV2000GTV Posts: 108
    These were a very big menace in my garden last year. They particularly loved my irises but were also happy to devour other flowers. They certainly smell foul, as I discovered in my quest to eradicate them. Before I could do any gardening I had to do a daily patrol of my plants then keep re-checking them. 

    I have lots of weird and wonderful insects in my garden, which I find fascinating, and am reluctant to kill anything (apart from mosquitoes!) but make an exception for these. 
    Martina Franca, Puglia, southern Italy
    Love living in Italy but a Loiner at heart 

  • Did I have one in my garden this year?  I can't work out if it is one or if it's a sloe bug, they're so similar!  I just took a picture as I thought its pattern was funny, like a man with a big moustache.
  • Desi_in_LondonDesi_in_London Posts: 702
    edited January 2022
    @Crazybeelady , from the link that @Nollie pasted , to me the antennal banding pattern would suggest sloe bug.
    Kindness is always the right choice.
  • FireFire Posts: 17,116
    Just to note that there are 4000 species of of stink / shield bug. The one featured in this thread is native to Asia and has recently turned up in Europe.


  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 9,342
    @Crazybeelady , from the link that @Nollie pasted , to me the antennal banding pattern would suggest sloe bug.
    If anyone does need to identify a bug then the British Bugs website is really simple to use and shows most bugs in all their various lifecycle stages.
    https://www.britishbugs.org.uk/heteroptera/Pentatomidae/dolycoris_baccarum.html is the hairy shieldbug that @Crazybeelady saw in her garden (also known as sloebug).

    https://www.britishbugs.org.uk/heteroptera/Pentatomidae/halyomorpha_halys.html Is the page for the Brown Marmorated Shieldbug and has some good info on the current status in the UK. It looks like our climate isn't especially suitable for them (yet) but they may be able to survive and get established in very sheltered areas.
    I spoke to the guys that run the site last year and they're very helpful and well informed on current research. I was asking them about another invasive bug but in that case the invaders were already a native species that were barely surviving and the population appears to be having a boost thanks to hitchhikers coming in on plants from Europe.

    Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 83,787
    I do hope that the news reports of the Marmorated Stink Bugs' arrival in the UK doesn't lead to a load of folk just killing every Shield Bug they come across  :'(

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FireFire Posts: 17,116
    ...that would be the worry...
  • Glad to hear mine was just a Sloe bug thanks. I didnt kill mine @Dovefromabove - I've actually got a selection of insect photos in my downstairs toilet wall, this being one of them. So I was a bit embarrassed to hear I had potentially put an invasive species on my wall 😂.
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