Garden Pests and Diseases: Friend or Foe #4, 0 by Night_Bloom

Night_Bloom wrote:
Hey guys! Here I am again. I have a garden talk this evening that I've been preparing for, so that's why I haven't been here so often. As soon as it's done, things should return to normal.

A quick picture for you guys. Here's one I used on my handouts I made for those coming to my talk tonight. This is a damsel bug nymph (family Nabidae). Like so many predators, it is a true bug, and so therefor stabs the prey with its "beak" and sucks the juices out. The damsel bug doesn't have the fat beak of the predatory stink bugs, so it generally gets small prey. In this case, this damsel bug has a small leaf hopper. If you look carefully, you can see it bewteen its front legs. Notice also how "fat" the front legs are - somewhat similar to some of the assassin bugs that have big, tough front legs to use for grabbing prey.