It was accidentally introduced in the United States close to the 90s and began to colonize North America. The insect found itself inside the packaging and luggage of international goods traffic and through the various trade routes spread to the outside the Asian continent.

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That’s exactly how it reached our country. It was 2012 when the first Asian bedbug specimens were notified and have since spread to different parts of the country. It affects over 300 types of wild and cultivated plants: herbaceous, shrubby and woody. In Italy the Asian bedbug affected pears, apples, peaches and nectarines, kiwi, cherry and small fruits, apricots, plums, hazelnuts, olives, soybeans, corn and vegetables. Climate change has encouraged the spread of this exotic species, which now represents a real emergency for the production system. Coldiretti has estimated the damage to crops equal to 20-25% of production, but with peaks of even 40%, causing damage that exceeds 740 million euros at national level, with serious effects on the environment, landscape and economy. To suffer one of the heaviest invasions was the Emilia Romagna, where the crops of the area have suffered a major attack.

The insect winters as an adult in natural crevices or inside buildings, in dry, sheltered and tendentially located at the top. It is very long-lived and in our climates it reaches 2 generations superimposed per year. In spring, wintering adults migrate to plants (spontaneous and cultivated) and mate.

From June to autumn, practically all forms of the insect (from egg to adult) are found in the field: for this reason the defense is very complicated. The female lays from 100 to 400 eggs, in groups of 28, for 7-13 weeks. Apart from the egg, all forms (juvenile and adult) are harmful.
The nymphs are very mobile (20 m in 5 hours) whilst the adults can fly even for 10 km. The damage is extremely significant, the stings cause deformations and even very deep suberosities, completely depreciating the production.