Bug ID

[valleyjim]

Can anyone tell me what this is.
Black body with orange strip down the back.

[shelleybean]

Looks like a stink bug to me. Pew!

[feldon30]

Stink Bugs and their cousins Leaf-footed Bugs cause a great deal of damage to tomato fruits. They pierce the skin of green fruit and suck out the juice, leaving corky white spots when the fruit ripens.

Unfortunately, the eggs are very difficult to see (They are a row of little rectangular eggs) and the young stink bugs nymphs (little red bugs with black legs) run around to the other side of the tomato if you try to collect them. Some have suggested using a Dustbuster or other handheld vacuum cleaner to suck them off the tomatoes before they can scurry away.

I've heard of breaking up a couple of aspirin pills or using powdered aspirin in your weekly spraying regimen to keep the stink bugs away. And there is a thread at GW about growing millet near your tomato beds as a trap crop for stink bugs. The stink bugs will flock to it rather than your tomatoes and then hopefully birds will swoop in and do the rest.

[bcday]

Because it has such a long snout, that looks to me like some kind of weevil rather than a stinkbug. How big is it? What kind of plant did you find it on? Was it indoors or outdoors?

[shelleybean]

I noticed his "nose" as well and looked in the Rodale ID guide. They show the stink but nymph with such a "nose."

[bitterwort]

I'd say it's a weevil of some kind. If you threatened it with a finger and it turned over on its back and played dead, then I'd say it's a weevil for sure.

[Worth1]

Don’t mistake the pictures that Feldon showed of the leaf footed bug with the assassin bug, the babies look almost the same too.

The assassin bug is beneficial to the garden just don’t get bit by one they hurt like all get out.
One of my cats can testify to that, ‘poor feller.

Here is a good link on them and other bugs.

KNOW YOUR BUGS!!!!!!
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/assassin.html
Worth

[Worth1]

Here are some weevils
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/Weevils.html

Worth

[feldon30]

Even with side-by-side pictures, it's almost impossible to tell assassin bug nymphs from leaf-footed stink bug nymphs. I think the legs look a bit different.

A good sign is if you find one all by itself where stink bugs have not been seen, then it may be an assassin bug nymph. I found one on a strawberry plant the other day.

[feldon30]

Stink Bug Nymphs
A problem easily solved with a Dustbuster.

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by feldon30

Stink Bugs and their cousins Leaf-footed Bugs cause a great deal of damage to tomato fruits. They pierce the skin of green fruit and suck out the juice, leaving corky white spots when the fruit ripens.

Unfortunately, the eggs are very difficult to see (They are a row of little rectangular eggs) and the young stink bugs nymphs (little red bugs with black legs) run around to the other side of the tomato if you try to collect them. Some have suggested using a Dustbuster or other handheld vacuum cleaner to suck them off the tomatoes before they can scurry away.

I've heard of breaking up a couple of aspirin pills or using powdered aspirin in your weekly spraying regimen to keep the stink bugs away. And there is a thread at GW about growing millet near your tomato beds as a trap crop for stink bugs. The stink bugs will flock to it rather than your tomatoes and then hopefully birds will swoop in and do the rest.

excellent pictures feldon.

i just wanted to alert everyone that the bug on the far right is an almost identical look-a-like to a spined soldier bug and the spined soldier bug is a benefical that you should not harm. i have to see a picture and read the text to differentiate the stink bug from the spined soldier bug. i'm not even sure if spined soldier bugs are found in texas but they are in the northern latitudes.

here's a link (http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/c.../stinkbugs.htm)to see stink bugs and spined soldier bug. from what i'm reading, it appears that the spined soldier bug is a stink bug? if i knew that i forgot it, i thought they were different. if you click on the picture of the brown stink bug and the picture of the spined soldier bug you'll see the difference. both have pointed shoulder tips but the brown stink bug's are a bit rounded whereas the spined soldier bug has very pointed shoulders.

i often find spined soldier bugs in my garden on pole beans and cukes and always try to leave them alone. if they are there then they are eating bad bugs.

tom