This is a fairly good sized (13-17mm) True Bug (Hemiptera), mostly black with an orange border along the wings and on 3 sides of the pronotum, and varying degrees of orange speckling amid the black. They are the only members of the family Largidae (Bordered Plant Bugs) in the PNW. Both adults and larvae are primarily plant eaters, but they will also eat dead insects and various animal’s feces. The larva have been found to eat eggs of their own species. Both nymphs and adults will periodically gather in large numbers, although the reason behind this behavior is not clear. Largus spp. seem to be unpalatable to some lizards, who, when offered nymphs of Largus californicus, “..attacked but immediately spit the bug out and wiped their mouths on the sand.“ (Booth, 1990) This is probably due to stored cardenolides acquired from plant hosts such as dogbane. They are not considered to be a pest species.
http://bugeric.blogspot.com/2014/05/livin-largus.html?m=1
https://bugguide.net/node/view/93845
Size- 13-17mm
Habitat- Various
Range- West of the Cascades
Eats- Plants, dead insects, feces; often feeds on cardenolide rich species of plants, like dogbane, which confers some resistance to predation, and may account for the somewhat aposematic (warning) coloring of these bugs.
Flight Season- Year around
How to kill this bugs, we have an infestation
Bummer! I’m not an exterminator so I have no idea what would be effective.
Hey! I found one of these guys in my raspberries (I’m in Canada). He lost a leg and the use of another leg in transit but he was too cute to kill. I can’t find much on how to keep them alive but he seems to like green pumpkin seeds and water with little bits of blackberries. Is there anything else I can feed him? note: it’s winter here so I don’t have access to fresh flowers unless I can buy them at a florist. 🙂 thanks!
Sounds like a good diet to me. They are polyphagous, so I’d just try things and see what works. Good luck!
Thanks for the great info on these beautiful bugs. I’ve shared a link to your page from my Facebook page, “Secrets of the Oregon Dunes,” where I shared my own photo (not a great one) of one of these bugs that I saw out on the dunes. Nice to have a link to share with people. You have a great site!
Thanks for your appreciation! Glad to hear it was useful!