Meet the spined soldier bug – a beneficial stink bug. Instead of damaging the crops, these remarkable species are good for them. Get ready to discover its unique spines, social behavior, and valuable contributions to both ecosystems and agriculture.
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Pentatomidae
Genus: Podisus
Description
Among many bad stink bugs, the spined soldier bug is a good one that doesn’t harm crops, gardens, or ornamental plants. Although this species has a close relationship with the invasive brown marmorated stink bug, it is actually beneficial. The insect is more of a friend than a foe to farmers.
Adult spined soldier bugs have a medium size, about 8.5 to 13 millimeters long. They own a shield-like shape with a pale brown or tan color. You can recognize them by the spurs on their “shoulders” near the head and a dark line on the tip of each forewing, which might look like one streak when their wings are closed.
Now, here’s the cool part: while some stink bugs munch on plants, the spined soldier bug doesn’t. Instead, it has a longer beak that’s 2 times thicker than its antennae, which it uses to hunt down other pests.
Habitat
The spined soldier bug is originally from North America, covering areas from Mexico and the Bahamas to parts of the West Indies, and up to Canada. It’s also been brought to other countries as part of efforts to control pests naturally.
These bugs can be found in diverse habitats such as near streams, woodlands, and fields with different crops like apples, cotton, cole crops, potatoes, soybean, asparagus, eggplant, tomatoes, cucurbits, sweet corn, beans, and onions, helping keep pesky insects in check. You can easily see them in fields where caterpillar and leaf beetle larvae are present.
In cold winter, they tend to hibernate in cozy spots like cracks in tree bark or nestled among leaves and other natural clutter on the ground.
They are beneficial insects
As mentioned above, these stink bugs are beneficial species. These carnivorous bugs eat more than 100 kinds of pesky insects, mainly caterpillars and soft-bodied beetle and sawfly larvae.
Their diet includes different arthropod species, such as the larvae of Mexican bean beetle, tobacco budworm, soybean looper, European corn borer, diamondback moth, velvet bean caterpillar, beet armyworm, flea beetles, corn earworm, beet armyworm, fall armyworm, bollworm, cabbage looper, imported cabbageworm, Colorado potato beetle, and many other pesky critters that harm crops.
Throughout a season, the stink bugs can chow down on more than 100 fully-grown fall armyworms.
They can even consume predatory insects or even their own kind (yes, they sometimes eat other stink bugs!). When there’s no prey around, these bugs might snack on plant fluids, but usually, it doesn’t harm the plants.
They use their long and thick mouthparts to poke into their prey. Then, they inject special enzymes that break down the prey’s insides into a soupy mixture. Finally, they slurp up this liquid meal.
Both adults and nymphs of spined soldier bugs eat pests. These stink bugs are so effective in controlling pests on farms that they are brought over to other places like Eastern Europe and Russia to help with pest problems. However, they can’t survive the winter there. Their eggs are also sold for use in control programs, especially in warm greenhouses, where they’ve been effective at managing pests.
Life cycle
The spined soldier bug goes through three stages in its life: eggs, nymphs, and adults. The eggs, usually found in clusters of 17 to 70, have a unique crown of spines at the top.
The eggs hatch into nymphs after 1 week. These nymphs don’t have the distinctive shield and shoulder spines of adults, nor do they have fully grown wings. They undergo five growth stages, called instars, over a period of roughly three weeks in warm weather.
Young nymphs of this species have a red abdomen and a black head and thorax. They’re more round in shape rather than shield-shaped. As they grow, their appearance changes. Their reddish abdomen has markings in black, orange, and white. There are white bar-shaped markings in the middle and orange markings on the sides. By the time they reach the fifth stage of development, their head and thorax get speckled with brown. The markings on the abdomen are either white or tan, along with black.
The spined soldier bug adults have a lifespan of about 3 – 4 months. During this time, they go to find a mate and reproduce. If there’s plenty of food around, a female can lay hundreds of eggs. In the northern and central United States, they typically create 2 – 3 generations in a year. But in warmer places like Louisiana, they might even have more generations.
How to attract spined soldier bug
To bring these bugs to your garden, you can do a few things based on the info we’ve got:
- Plant Perennial Plants: These bugs like hanging around perennial plants near your veggies. These plants give them a cozy spot to stay in each year, making them more likely to stick around.
- Use Insectary Flowers: Plant flowers with flat, open blooms like alyssum, dill, yarrow, buckwheat, sunflowers, and cosmos. These flowers attract helpful insects, including Spined Soldier Bugs, which munch on pests like Colorado potato beetles, Mexican bean beetles, and cabbage worms.
- Consider Farmscaping: This is about creating a habitat that pulls in beneficial insects like Spined Soldier Bugs. You can check out resources like the “Farmscaping to Enhance Biological Control” guide from ATTRA for detailed plans on dealing with specific pests and attracting these helpful bugs.
By doing these things in your garden, you can make it a welcoming place for spined soldierbugs. They’ll hang around and lend a hand in keeping harmful insects away from your crops.
Reference: Wikipedia
