harlequin cabbage bugs in my kale forest

[habitat_gardener]

Does anyone have ideas for controlling harlequin bugs?

I've been growing perennial kale for about a decade, and this is the first year I've ever seen Harlequin bugs (Murgantia histrionica -- a type of stink bug) on it. They're also on my dinosaur kale and rainbow lacinato kale. I've been hand-picking the bugs and looking for egg clusters for months now. The only thing that reduced their populations (for a while) was cutting back all the foliage on the 3-year-old dino kale plants. Now the leaves have all grown back, and the harlequin bugs are back in force.

It's at an organic community garden, and I don't think anyone else is trying to control them. To lure pollinators and beneficials, I have yarrow and am letting celery flower.

I wanted to move some of my kale plants to another garden, but I really don't want to bring any harlequin bugs or eggs with the plants!!

[habitat_gardener]

This warm weather is making the populations explode! I visited the garden with the kale forest today and spent most of my time catching the harlequin bugs and putting them into a pail of soapy water, and then examining the leaves for egg clusters.

A couple months ago the bugs were so numerous that I cut all the foliage off my dino kale plants (about 3 years old, with thick stems). The foliage came back beautifully.

I don't have a compost bin at this garden, so usually I take my compostables to one of my other gardens. But I don't want to risk spreading the harlequin bugs around, in case I miss an egg cluster, so I'm going to have to do something else with it.

[peebee]

When my daughter was in 2nd grade her teacher bought eggs and had each child in the class nuture them to hatch these bugs. Then everyone was told to take them home and encouraged to release them in their gardens. Little did I know then that the darn bugs would multiply like crazy and it took me 10 years of non-aggressive combat to get rid of them. Basically I just caught them by hand or stepped on them.

I hope educators educate themselves about such pests before they do something like this. I wrongly assumed that since a teacher gave them out to the class, that they were beneficial bugs like ladybugs. I found out too late, but at least they are gone now.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by peebee

When my daughter was in 2nd grade her teacher bought eggs and had each child in the class nuture them to hatch these bugs. Then everyone was told to take them home and encouraged to release them in their gardens. Little did I know then that the darn bugs would multiply like crazy and it took me 10 years of non-aggressive combat to get rid of them. Basically I just caught them by hand or stepped on them.

I hope educators educate themselves about such pests before they do something like this. I wrongly assumed that since a teacher gave them out to the class, that they were beneficial bugs like ladybugs. I found out too late, but at least they are gone now.

Wow! They're pretty bugs, but all the damage on the brassica leaves is not pretty.

I defoliated my dino kales again, and cut off any affected leaves on my perennial kales. Once the heat wave is over, I'm going to defoliate the rainbow lacinato kales, which are protecting a cucumber plant from afternoon sun.