Is this a pest?

(Laura) Olympia, WA(Zone 8a)

I have a bunch of these in my yard and I don't know what they are.

Thumbnail by zhinu
Prairieville, LA(Zone 9a)

Laura, the white foamy stuff is more than likely from the Spittle bug. If you enter spittle bug in the common name line in the Bug Data Base here at Dave's it comes up with 5 matches. With out a picture of the bug itself it would be hard to identify, but go to that data base and click on each of the five. You may be able to recognize from the pictures which type you have.

Northern, IN(Zone 5b)

Quoting:
You may be able to recognize from the pictures which type you have

I could see no pics (???)

Dublin, CA(Zone 9a)

I agree, looks like spittlebugs to me too. They show up for a short period each year and then disappear again--they don't typically do much damage to plants so if they're on things that are more visible I'll usually hose the spittle off because it's sort of ugly, but otherwise I'll leave them alone and they disappear on their own in a few weeks.

Prairieville, LA(Zone 9a)

My error Golden Domer. I assumed with that many entries there must be a picture. I personally have never seen a spittle bug in my garden....only their namesake spittle. I guess in this case Laura will have to google spittlebug.

ecrane3, I'm with you. The bugs have never done any real discernible damage that I can see, so, like you, I just give the plant a quick wash off. The first time I saw it I gave my teenage sons a hard time about spitting on plants. (Spitting seems quite popular with teeage boys)

So, Laura. Hose the spittle away and the bugs will leave of their own accord.

Northern, IN(Zone 5b)

Logical assumption, themoonhowl.

All's well that ends well. The problem seems solved.

(Laura) Olympia, WA(Zone 8a)

I don't really care if they're there, just wanted to make sure they didn't do damage to my garden.

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