Another bug ID request (two, actually)

I found both of these on my Zucchino this afternoon, grrr!!! Sorry the pictures aren't very good. I need to download OS 4 onto my phone and hopefully the autofocus will help. I am pretty sure that second picture is striped cucumber beetles....

I cannot see them well enough to be of any help... sorry.

Testing to see if this is any better. It is a very dark brown... there is a darker chevron on its' behind that faces the head... maybe because the wings are a little lighter.

At first I thought the first bug (top picture) was a squash bug. I then was able to blow up your picture on my screen and found a great picture in "Good Bug Bad Bug" by Jessica Walliser on page 55. The bug IDs is as a Good Bug called an Assassin Bug (I think "good" is relative here, as long as it doesn't get you!).
I agree with you on your ID of the second bug.
Maybe you can find pictures of the Assassin Bug on the internet that match yours. I found they can come in different colors.
Hope this helps.
Jane

Thank you. Looking more closely at him (and looking at the images which Googling "assassin bug" brought me)... I'm not sure if it's an assassin bug, or a stink bug. I don't know whether to smush him or set him loose again! :|

Ooooh, if it really is a stink bug, when you squish it, keep it in the bag and run !
I'm fighting the battle with those cucumber beetles. So far it is a draw in my battle.

My husband took his loupe out just now and found egg casings on a number of plants. I was hoping to avoid it, but I think it's time for Neem oil.

Megan wrote:My husband took his loupe out just now and found egg casings on a number of plants. I was hoping to avoid it, but I think it's time for Neem oil.

That is interesting because I have tons of the cucumber beetles but cannot find eggs. And me with no loupe.

Well... I don't know if it's eggs from cuke beetles or another insect, but he showed me. My eyesight is horrible and I need bifocals, I had to take my glasses off to see it. Without the loupe, it looks like a tiny, tiny piece of white laundry lint stuck to the bottom of the leaf. It was clearly not part of the leaf itself, but I would have mistaken it for a piece of random whatever, had I noticed it at all.

I think that first one is a squash bug, because it looks too long and narrow to be a stink bug. Maybe it's this guy?

http://bugguide.net/node/view/2684

BTW, I bought myself a cheap used Audubon Insect Field Guide, but BugGuide.net has much better images! The book does help though when I'm just trying to figure out the bug's family. :-)

Today my hubby noticed a yellowing, wilted zucchini leaf, but I just thought it was the heat. When the shade came over this eveing we noticed the tell-tale frass and we dug out a squash vine borer larva from it. Actually, it was only half a larva, but I think that should do it! It wasn't very big, so I hope my zucchini will survive. We spritzed all the lower stems with Rotenone as well.

It's sooooo frustrating when you think you're diligently looking for the eggs and it gets past you! I join with others with a resounding arrrggghhh! Seems like their ought to be something we could paint on our squash stems to win against these dastardly vine borers!

Patti

That's him! That's a squash bug?! It looks nothing like the SVB pictures I've seen?!?! AHHHH!!!!!

Megan wrote: That's him! That's a squash bug?! It looks nothing like the SVB pictures I've seen?!?! AHHHH!!!!!

Just to clarify...the bug image and link to your bug IS a squash bug.

The larva I removed from my squash stem was a squash vine borer...the larva of that red wasp-like moth. Sorry if I confused you, I was just adding another bug woe story!

Patti

Thanks. Um... should I be relieved? Or scared all over again at what a squash bug can do?

Megan wrote:Thanks. Um... should I be relieved? Or scared all over again at what a squash bug can do?

I think you should be relieved! Here's a good article that talks about both: http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef314.asp

Patti

Front view, sitting on a strawberry leaf.

pattipan wrote:

Megan wrote:Thanks. Um... should I be relieved? Or scared all over again at what a squash bug can do?

I think you should be relieved! Here's a good article that talks about both: http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef314.asp

Patti

Compared to SVB... relieved... but... eep. (Thanks very much for the link.)

Lavender Debs wrote:

Front view, sitting on a strawberry leaf.

Is that a cicada??? (Hubby's first thought is moth, or something that is molting.)

It looks like a new moth fresh out of its pupae, its wings are still expanding. Possibly a tiger moth of some sort as I can see colourful underwings.

That is kinda what I thought babe but no antenna and in the 2nd pic it has fly eyes and that rolling tongue thing.

Maybe one of these Underwing moths?
http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=underwing&search=Search

Comparing faces of large yellow underwing and your bug:


The one image of your moth looks like it might have been injured or had a run in with a bird?? Perhaps his antennae were clipped.

Patti

Megan, I hate to burst your bubble, but squash bugs are BAD! They will kill your squash just as SVB's do. Also, they have recently discovered that some squash bugs carry a new virus that they can inject into the plant which causes it to wilt.

Squash those bugs now before their eggs hatch and you are overrun with those sucking monsters. Look for their orangey-brown egg clusters in the v's of the leaves and remove them. If you don't control them early you will have too many to count.

Trust me. I speak from experience.

ander217 wrote:Megan, I hate to burst your bubble, but squash bugs are BAD! They will kill your squash just as SVB's do.

It wasn't exactly a bubble. I saw them early and was worried, but hubby thought they were stinkbugs, no big deal. However, we just finished spraying with Neem oil. We'll see how that goes. Thanks sweetie!