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Sticker of Squash bug
Bug card No. 1294 of 1,500

Squash bug

Anasa tristis
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The squash bug is a flat greyish-brown bug with little brown and gold spots along its edges. It lives on pumpkin and squash plants and sucks their juice. If you bother it, it lets out a nasty smell.

Lives in
All over North America, in gardens and fields with pumpkins and squash
Length
1.5 cm (0.59 in)
Top speed
about 0.22 km/h (0.14 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It may smell bad if you pick it up, but it does not hurt you.
What does it eat?
It sucks sap from the leaves of pumpkins, squash and their relatives, and sometimes from the fruit.
For real!Photo of Squash bug
Picture by Pollinator at English Wikipedia. CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Squash bug about 1.5 cm long (0.59 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 2.5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 16 seconds

How big is Squash bug compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It lays shiny bronze eggs in neat groups under the leaves.

2

The babies start out green and turn grey as they grow.

3

Its babies grow up best on pumpkin plants and hardly ever on melons.

4

It can spread a germ that makes squash plants wilt and die.

you asked

Most asked questions about Squash bug

?Are squash bugs harmful?

Not to people. They can harm pumpkin and squash plants, though.

?What do squash bugs eat?

They suck the sap of pumpkin and squash plants.

?Why do squash bugs smell?

They let out a nasty smell when disturbed to keep enemies away.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Anasa tristis
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Coreidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Coreidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Anasa tristis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Pollinator at English Wikipedia. CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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