Bug/Pest Identification....Help!

brianj555 wrote:

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:On your miner-riddled bean leaves is one of the harvestmen - they are good: mostly scavengers, possibly occasionally predatory.

Your lower photo is a good guy, a predator. Looks like a Milkweed Assassin Bug:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/1342691/bgimage

Thanks beetles

BPSF-Youre good with the ID.

has55 wrote:

brianj555 wrote:

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:On your miner-riddled bean leaves is one of the harvestmen - they are good: mostly scavengers, possibly occasionally predatory.

Your lower photo is a good guy, a predator. Looks like a Milkweed Assassin Bug:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/1342691/bgimage

Thanks beetles

BPSF-Youre good with the ID.

I've always liked bugs, and they seem to like me. My dad taught me some, and I had the Golden Guide to Insects as a child ...I think I fell asleep with that one more than once. When I find something new I look it up - nowadays in Kaufman's guide and/or BugGuide.net, so I'm always learning.

What is that fuzzy thing on your finger?

sanderson wrote:What is that fuzzy thing on your finger?

Bumbl...err...actually I guess it's a thumblebee!

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

has55 wrote:

brianj555 wrote:

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:On your miner-riddled bean leaves is one of the harvestmen - they are good: mostly scavengers, possibly occasionally predatory.

Your lower photo is a good guy, a predator. Looks like a Milkweed Assassin Bug:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/1342691/bgimage

Thanks beetles

BPSF-Youre good with the ID.

I've always liked bugs, and they seem to like me. My dad taught me some, and I had the Golden Guide to Insects as a child ...I think I fell asleep with that one more than once. When I find something new I look it up - nowadays in Kaufman's guide and/or BugGuide.net, so I'm always learning.

that's explained a lot about your wonderful gift developed over time.
 This is a better place for the insect ID
this is the best I can do on the insects on my cucumber leaf.

My best guess is the Ghastly Assassin Bug (Zelus luridus) with some dark colored prey - like this:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/515810/bgimage

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

sanderson wrote:What is that fuzzy thing on your finger?

Bumbl...err...actually I guess it's a thumblebee!

Are they really that docile?

sanderson wrote:

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

sanderson wrote:What is that fuzzy thing on your finger?

Bumbl...err...actually I guess it's a thumblebee!

  Are they really that docile?

Some of the bees in my yard are quite docile during the cool part of the day at this time of the year.

trolleydriver wrote:

sanderson wrote:

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

sanderson wrote:What is that fuzzy thing on your finger?

Bumbl...err...actually I guess it's a thumblebee!

  Are they really that docile?

Some of the bees in my yard are quite docile during the cool part of the day at this time of the year.

I was holding an aster still to photograph, but got boarded. I think the bee was cold and I was warm so it clambered on. They are pretty docile, especially as TD says, when it's cool out.

What critter puts little pin holes in cucumbers and seems to move in there and snack a bit?  They are literally the size of a ball point pin tip.  Green sludge ultimately comes ooozing out???

Pickle Worm.  They will also get summer squash.  Terrible pest down here in the south.  They usually show up in July/August around here.

yolos wrote:Pickle Worm.  They will also get summer squash.  Terrible pest down here in the south.  They usually show up in July/August around here.

BT?  How do you attempt to control or eradicate them?

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

.

I've always liked bugs, and they seem to like me. My dad taught me some, and I had the Golden Guide to Insects as a child ...I think I fell asleep with that one more than once. When I find something new I look it up - nowadays in Kaufman's guide and/or BugGuide.net, so I'm always learning.

As a kid, I was afraid of just about all bugs. After buying a house, and working in the yard, I came to realize they're not all scary, even bees. Honey bees and bumble bees are not aggressive, like those nasty yellow jackets and wasps are. I've come to think of bumble bees as the teddy bears of the insect world. Love your picture!

hammock gal wrote:As a kid, I was afraid of just about all bugs. After buying a house, and working in the yard, I came to realize they're not all scary, even bees. Honey bees and bumble bees are not aggressive, like those nasty yellow jackets and wasps are. I've come to think of bumble bees as the teddy bears of the insect world.   Love your picture!

I was afraid of buzzing critters until I joined this Forum! Now I am thankful for each and every one!

Anyone have any idea what might have caused this?  Needless to say, when I went out this morning this was off the vine, on the ground.  

We have had a ton of rain?  But.....

It was probably a tomato horn worm.

When I go out to the garden , I am getting tons of bites from something. I mean a bunch.  I haven’t actually seen th culprit, but here are the marks they leave.  Previously they have been around but they have gotten much worse lately .  Does anyone know what they might be?


They are really bad now. I can’t even take my daughter out with me .  Before I was fine if I just wore socks that were pulled up.  Now I can’t wear shorts at all.
They kind of look like mosquito bites and I guess they could be, but it’s weird that I haven’t seen them and that they are in such large numbers only in and around the bed.

To a large degree bug bites look alike. It seems the size of the bump is more a measure of how strongly you react to whatever the bug injects rather than its size -- and different people react differently.
If not mosquitoes, perhaps:
Stable flies? http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/URBAN/MEDICAL/Stomoxys_calcitrans.htm
Midges? http://www.sunherald.com/sports/outdoors/article174903376.html
Straw itch mites? http://www.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=11153
Chiggers? https://www.medicinenet.com/chiggers_bites/article.htm

I started a reply last night including slips, and the computer stalled and I lost everyting!

I think those welts are from the Aedes Aegypti or A. albopictus mosquito, depending on what is present in your area. It is small, quiet, and lives around humans. This is the mosquito that can carry the Zika virus, among other "tropical" diseases. You recently received a lot of rain so the population may have exploded.

I have been plagued for 2 summers with something very stealthy biting me during the day. I didn't notice anything until the welts starts itching. The largest welts grew to a good half inch in diameter. I can only tolerate shorts and flip flops in our heat so this mystery pest just ruins gardening . A few weeks ago, I was bent over and saw 3 small mosquitoes on my lower leg. I called the Mosquito Abatement District for some information and someone came out. I mean, they really wanted to come out! Apparently this mosquito recently moved into the Central Valley, where it shouldn't be found what with our dry and hot weather. In this area, it is present July-October, maybe into Nov or Dec depending on how warm those months remain.

Here are some depressing facts. They are small and quiet so you may not hear them buzzing. They bite humans almost exclusively. Outdoors they hang around in vegetation (including veggie gardens!), by house doors and those shoes left on the porch. Indoors they hang around your most occupied furniture and rooms, waiting for you to come by. The female lays single eggs instead of a raft of eggs, a teaspoon of water is plenty for her to lay an egg. The eggs can survive months in a dry environment, waiting for the next rain/water source. At this time, garden sprays containing pyrethrin are good knock down of numbers. The bad thing is that pyrethrins are hard on bees.

https://blog.verily.com/2017/07/debug-fresno-our-first-us-field-study.html
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article34251165.html (9-6-15)

 Bettles, Sanderson and Dorthy!

These are on my Ping Tung eggplant, eating leaves, tons of them in various stages of adulthood, several stages in picture.  New one on me.  Spanked them off, minutes later, back.  

https://i.servimg.com/u/f62/19/25/77/83/db838c10.jpg

Weird tan color on the adults.  Nibblers.  Help?!

OhioGardener wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:These are on my Ping Tung eggplant, eating leaves, tons of them in various stages of adulthood, several stages in picture.  New one on me.  Spanked them off, minutes later, back.  

https://i.servimg.com/u/f62/19/25/77/83/db838c10.jpg

Weird tan color on the adults.  Nibblers.  Help?!

Those look like Colorado Potato Beetle larva.  Knocking them off won't do much, unless you knock them into a pan of soapy water.  In our area they have become resistant to most insecticides due to over-spraying by potato farmers. I find that Neem oil (1 Tbsp Neem oil & 1 Tbsp Dr Bronner's Soap in 1/2 gal water) spray takes care of them.

Hmm!  Interesting!  These things are kinda gross....so I had already committed to doing my famous peppermint soap, Tabasco, and mouthwash mix in the AM.  I don’t have been oil.  So will give my folksy thing a try and see.  The plant is seemingly unharmed by them at this time.  Thanks, OG!

Update:  Did the peppermint Castile soap, water, Tabasco and a dash of canola oil, squirted the eggplant and my beat up and skeleton-ized bush beans, and Voila!  No more leaf eating bugs!  

I think the JBs are about done here.  Good!