squash OR soldier bug?

I have found just a few squash bug eggs this year and have squished them on sight. Yesterday I found 4 pairs mating. i guess they move a little slower in this position and was able to spray DE right on them, them squish them too. One pair looked a little different, darker, almost black so decided to look them up. Now I see THEY are defiantely squash bugs BUT am unsure of the others. Now I'm finding pics of soldier bugs which look almost identical to squash bugs but are beneficial! Do soldier bugs move like squash bugs? Here's some pics and you tell me if you can tell the difference. THey even show the eggs look alike!! :scratch:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1161&bih=634&q=squash+bugs&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&tbm=isch

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1161&bih=634&gbv=2&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=spined+soldier+bug&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=spined+&gs_rfai=&tbm=isch

I don't know about the eggs but the easiest way I have foud to tell the differance between them is the good guys bodies are a bit wider and pointier just behind the head when compaired to the squash and stink bugs. I hope this helps. They both come in a wide range of colors here so that is no help to me but it might be differant where you live.

I hope that it is squash bugs (and not the beneficials) that I have been killing. I used the same method I use for stink bugs, inside and out… a little plastic bathroom cup with a little liquid soap, shush them in , their dead in seconds. The one I think are squash bugs are more slender and a lighter brown, when they spread their wings they have an almost orange area under the wings. Do they sound like squash bugs?

Thanks, I have a hard time getting them into a cup because they move so fast! I usually let out an eeekkkk. then hopefully have DE duster in hand to hit them with that, then they move s l o w and I call my husband to squish them! hahahah I have noticed that, since I've been vigilant and not too many eggs or hatchlings are on the squash, they are laying eggs on new tomato leaves. I'm wondering if they are becoming desperate since they can't find any leaves without DE?

Ooops. I might have killed a beneficial as well. I just checked my Zucchini plant and there is a soldier like bug on it. It looks more like a soldier than a bad guy. I'll leave this one alone. He's probably eating the other bugs with Yellow and Black Stripes or Dots. Learn something new everyday.

RC

I hate grabbing squash bugs, so when I am on the hunt I wear my garden gloves. I still make faces and go 'EEEEWWWW, yuck, yuck' but then I catch the little buggers, they are history, SQUASHED bugs. Being a quasi Buddhist, I still say a little prayer for them.

camprn wrote:I hate grabbing squash bugs, so when I am on the hunt I wear my garden gloves. I still make faces and go 'EEEEWWWW, yuck, yuck' but then I catch the little buggers, they are history, SQUASHED bugs. Being a quasi Buddhist, I still say a little prayer for them.

Maybe we should all say prayers that they come back as beneficials in their next life.

Reverend Curlee wrote:

camprn wrote:I hate grabbing squash bugs, so when I am on the hunt I wear my garden gloves. I still make faces and go 'EEEEWWWW, yuck, yuck' but then I catch the little buggers, they are history, SQUASHED bugs. Being a quasi Buddhist, I still say a little prayer for them.

Maybe we should all say prayers that they come back as beneficials in their next life.

Ohh, I like that.

Kay