B. thalassina has been recognised as a 'new encounter pest' of West African cacao, Theobroma cacao since the 1960s, when it was observed that "large nymphs and adults … feed on developing cocoa pods, causing damage to the beans. The small nymphs feed mainly on the leaves and do little damage. The adults have long feeding stylets which can penetrate the podcortex and suck liquid from the developing beans. This results in malformed or atrophied beans. In ripe pods the malformed beans are brown instead of pink, and dry, lacking the sugary mucilage which normally covers beans."