Garden Pests and Diseases: Friend or Foe?, 0 by Night_Bloom

Night_Bloom wrote:
As a first example, here's a stink bug, but this stink bug is a predatory stink bug. Even though it looks very similar to the ones that eat your plants, as you can see here, it dines on caterpillars instead of your plants. It often eats caterpillars many times its size!

How can you tell if it's a good stink bug? One of the best ways to tell is by looking at the "beak". A predatory bug will have a short, stout beak whereas a plant-sucking stink bug will have a longer slender beak.

Handle the predators with care though - don't squash! The beaks that are good at catching pests can also bite sensitive skin if threatened.

predatory stink bug (family Pentatomidae) and prey.