Hi!
I’ve seen lots of these little shield bugs around my garden and assumed they were harmless so left them alone but I’ve just looked at my year 2 chard and after me being away for five days it’s covered in these little brown spots and there’s at least ten mating pairs of shield bug.
I’ve checked online and the consensus seems to be that they aren’t a big problem in the UK but as they were traditionally confined to south England and in small numbers it is still inconclusive as to how much damage they can do. So I guess with the general increase in temperature (thanks again climate change) they may become a problem?
Has anyone had experience with them doing this kind of damage? Can I still eat the chard? Should I rip out the whole plant and replace with my baby chard plant?
Thanks for any help!
by Samspoonerz
2 Comments
The larvae as well as the Bugs themselves Drink the sap of plants, they are a Pest. If ur able to, wash away the eggs of them and kil the big bugs.
In Germany they are a real Problem already. The damage is the same as of Aphids but worse if in big numbers
I have yet to see a shield shaped bug in the garden who isn’t a foe once it starts laying eggs on a plant.
I’ve pretty much put all my greens under netting at this point. I don’t mind a few nibbles in the leaves of other crops where the leaves aren’t what I’m harvesting…but for greens I want to protect the part I’m going to harvest.
Leaf 2 doesn’t look too bad, but I think I’d draw the line at eating a leaf that looked like leaf 3. For a year 2 plant, I think I’d just move that leaf right along to the compost pile as long as you can rinse the eggs off. Check the bed to see if they are on anything else before planting the baby chard, but if possible you may be better off planting it somewhere else this year just to be safe.