Horehound Bug

Agonoscelis rutila · Order: Hemiptera · Family: Pentatomidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Horehound Bug
Photo: Atlas of Living Australia (Dew%2C%20Steven), CC BY

The horehound bug is a stink bug that sucks sap from horehound plants, causing new shoots to wilt. Its development includes five distinct nymphal stages.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

They pass through five nymphal stages as they grow.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

They usually attack horehound but may also swarm on many other trees and shrubs.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

They feed by sucking the sap of horehound, which leads to wilting of new shoots.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

Their life cycle includes five nymphal stages before reaching adulthood.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 1 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Maryland.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Questions people ask

What do Horehound bugs eat?

They suck the sap from horehound plants, causing the new shoots to wilt.

Source: Wikipedia

How many growth stages do they have?

They develop through five nymphal stages before becoming adults.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Pentatomidae)

Brown Marmorated Stink BugBrown Marmorated Stink BugHalyomorpha halysDamages trees, gardens or cropsGreen Stink BugGreen Stink BugChinavia hilarisDamages trees, gardens or cropsHarlequin BugHarlequin BugMurgantia histrionicaDamages trees, gardens or cropsBrown Stink BugBrown Stink BugEuschistus servusDamages trees, gardens or cropsGreen Shield BugGreen Shield BugPalomena prasinaEuropean Striped Shield BugEuropean Striped Shield BugGraphosoma italicum

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horehound_bug

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.