Many mirid species feed on plant material. In addition to causing physiology damage to the plant they can transit plant disease. There are a few species that are predatory.

 

For the species of mirids that are a pest on cocoa, they feed on steams, leaves, branches, and pods. This feeding on the shoots can cause death of the steams, branches, and leaves. This leads to the tree to not produce pods. The feeding on the pods results in necrosis spots. This spots can provide a location for disease or other pest to infest the pod. If the damage to the pulp is serve is could lead to damage to the beans as seen with the coco pod borer. There are no reported case of mirid transferring plant disease in cocoa to date.

 

Mirids have been classified as both a primary or secondary pest. While the damage they do is not directly to the beans (the valuable part of the pod), it can have serious impact on the tree as a whole. When mirid pest are not controlled proper, they can results in serious damage (up to 75% loss) in just a few years.

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