Posts Tagged: Bagrada bugs

Bagrada bug menacing Santa Barbara gardeners and farmers

Seemingly out of nowhere, thousands of bagrada bugs have descended on Santa Barbara County gardens and organic farms, reported Joan Bolton in Noozhawk.

Bagrada bugs are native to east and southern Africa, Egypt, Zaire and Senegal, according to the Center for Invasive Species Research at UC Riverside. They first appeared four years ago in Los Angeles County, and rapidly spread through Southern California and southern Arizona.

Surendra Dara, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, first wrote about bagrada bugs in his Strawberries and Vegetables Blog last January, when the pest was only found in Imperial, Riverside and Orange counties. Last month, Dara said the Santa Barbara agricultural commissioner 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.

Conventional farmers are controlling bagrada bugs with pyrethroids and organophosphates like chlorpyrifos and malathion. However, because the bugs are so new to scientists, they haven’t yet figured out much in the way of organic controls, Dara said.

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