Insect ID - Good or Bad?

I have never seen these before. They are on all of my plants whether they are blooming or not. They hide from the sun and move very fast.

They look like some kind of plant bug nymph. Here's a page on the cotton plant bug that shows the life cycle. Yours is prolly a different species. http://www.geocities.com/brisbane_bugs/Buglife.htm

Thanks for the link. I went through the Texas A&M Common Texas Insects photos and descriptions, but did not find it. You are right, it is a nymph of some sort. I do not want to kill them unless they are really bad buggers. I have lots of ladybugs and other beneficial insects. There are so many of these unidentified ones that I am becoming worrried for my plants.

You'll know sooner or later if they're harming your plants. I've had tarnished plant bugs and Four-lined plant bugs do a number on my gardens. They can do a lot of damage and they're hard to find because they quickly scurry into the pants foliage when approached.

Assasin bugs are another that look similar and have the long flat body. If that's the case they'd be a good one to have around.

Poppysue, I found a several photos of assasin bug nymphs that look quite similar to both of the ones in my photo. Apparently, there are many different types. These are quite pretty actually, especially the red one. I observed them for quite some time and they appeared to be searching for other insects. In my photo you can see the long, tubular, piercing mouth part (rostrum) which is tucked back under the head and body when not in use. I hope they are not eating the ladybugs. They are also known as "bee killer bugs" because they especially like honeybees. I like the honeybees too (not for lunch, though). They have never stung me even though I work in the garden with them all around me. A person had posted a photo of an insect on a bug identification forum. She had just been bitten by one on 2/17/04 in Austin, Tx. The person who identified the insect said it was an assassin bug nymph.

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/true_bugs.html

They are listed as beneficial insects as you stated. Thanks for your help.

I have the same bug on my wild cotton tree in ft. myers. can't decide if they're assassin bugs or not. for some reason, I can't access the whatsthatbug website... they are only on the side of the tree which is on the shade. that side isn't doing as well as the other - yellow leaves, etc. don't know if it's due to being in the shade of the palms or due to the bugs??

These are weird. When I would walk up, they would run into the plants and hide from me. My plants did not seem to suffer from their presence and are all doing fine. Do you think they are quite cute or am I just a little nutty?

You might watch your shadow. It's my understanding that turtles, bugs, birds, and other critters fear "the shadow" since it can be a predator. If you come up on the non-shadow side, then I don't know.

Htop, compared to the hornworms that I have at present, they are adorable. I would trade for your pretty red spotted bug any day lol.

This is an one of the instars of an assassin bug. They won't hurt your plants. They eat caterpillars and cockroaches, etc and birds and snakes snack on them!

morganmom, that is very interesting.

frogsrus, I don't think I want to trade.

Floridian, thanks for the information.

We had a million of these one year when we lived in Houston. They cleaned all the aphids out of our garden very quickly. Then they left. Good bugs.

Trois

They are quite interesting to observe.

Waaa! I am going to cry. I killed two of these this weekend because I thought that they were Leaffooted Bug nymphs. I looked and looked at assassin bug pictures and finally decided that they were not assassin bugs. Now that I think about it these did have the sucking instrument so I should have known. Check out these links to Leafooted Bugs and see how similar they look.
http://www.insectimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1227070
Second pic on the left
http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/aimg65.html

At least I did not kill the other Assassin Bug Nymphs I found. They look different though. See this post. http://davesgarden.com/t/444543/

sweezel, I can see why you thought that they were Leaffooted Bug nymphs. I too have killed beneficial insects before I knew what they were. But, the time that I felt the worst was when I sprayed aphids and then discovered that I had killed a huge number of tiny ladybugs thatI had not seen before I sprayed.

htop, I have the same bugs on my flowers. I went and captured some tonight. I feel like they are damaging my purple hyacinth bean vine. They are covering the bean pods. I mean they are solid on the pods. I don't know if they are sucking the life out of it or what.
I can't tell from the links above - are they bad or good bugs. Looks to me like they may be the bad bugs. I just got a leaf - that was covered with white flies and put it in the jar with the bugs. I believe they are only annoyed by them - maybe they are too big for them to attack.


This message was edited Sep 9, 2004 8:23 PM

Another view on the leaf.

The ones I posted are good insects. I too at first thought that they might be hurting my plants, but they were killing harmful bugs. I like your test. I don't know if they like white flies for dinner.

Beverlyf, Just a thought but could your group possibly be a hatch or a swarm?
Yours sure look like assasin bugs in silhouette. They often hold their rear ends up in the air a bit when they're on the move.

I read somewhere that love-bugs have no known predators....i've witnessed many times the assassain bugs dining on them....
if they happen to be joined the AB gets 2 for the price of one.
They are one of the bugs i'm glad to see show up. Not to mention the babies are soooo comical.....
jen

looks like another pretty face to me.