Leaf-footed bug attack!

Dear friends,
For the third year in a row my garden has been invaded by leaf-footed bugs. These guys look like a slightly longer variety of stink bug, but they are dark with a yellow or orange stripe across their backs. I used some rotenone in the old days, but don't want to use that bad stuff anymore. Last year I eventually gave up and gave the garden to the bugs. (they we're apparently hungrier than me.) These guys laugh at my pepper and garlic sprays. Any suggestions for running them off?
Thanks for any help you can give.....Stiller

Yep...they're actually in the same family group as "stink bugs". You could zap them with liquid pyrethrum, which would paralyze them...or what I do with stink bugs is use Safer's Soap with isopropyl alcohol in it. Stink bugs don't care to get wet so perhaps the same may be true of leaf-footed bugs. I go down the row with a water hose and spray the plants and bugs...what happens is the bugs tend to crawl to the tops of the plants so they can sit in the warm sun and dry out. Now they are "sitting ducks"! Take your sprayer with 3-4 tbs of Safer's soap mixed with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of alcohol (per gallon of finished mix) and spray them liberally. They'll drop like flies! Be sure to get them good and wet. Also if you have sensitive plants you may want to spray just before the sun gets off them ...this way the bugs will use the sun to dry out but soon after the sun will be off the plants so the alcohol doesn't burn them. I've never noticed any damage to plants tho in my garden. Give it a try. (And throw away the rotenone.)

Thanks, Horseshoe. I'll look for some Safer's Soap at my garden supply this weekend. If they don't have it , they'll get it for me. I've already thrown the rotenone out. In my early study, some of the organic gardening books recomended it, but I've learned better since. We have so many butterflies, and I don't want to kill anything unless I have to. I've had very good luck with diluted Octagon Soap, (we can still find it around here) and that's what my grandmother used. But these bugs aren't phased by it. Or maybe they just multiply so fast I can't tell some are gone. Anyway, If I don't find the Safer's on the shelf, I may try my Octagon with the alcohol.

I have success with DE- diatameous earth, also,