Today I found dozens of these bugs on my zucchini plants. I’ts probably academic since they’re starting to wilt away for the fall, but I wonder if I should spray to kill these things. I started thinking about it though and I think these may be some kind of predator bugs that and that maybe they’re eating not on the plant but on the cucumber beetles that have wreaked havoc on these plants all year.
So, what are these bugs? [mods, if you feel this should be in Cafe society feel free to move.]
It’s an immature stinkbug or shield bug - a ‘true bug’.
ETA: Generally speaking, they are garden pests - sap feeders (with exceptions, but generally, they eat your vegetables)
That is a squash bug. Get rid of them as soon as you can or you will not have a crop next year. Best (non-chemical) way? They lay their eggs near the stem on the underside of the leaves in little rows and columns. Look under all the leaves, pick those leaves (or tear out the part of the leaf that has the eggs), and smash the eggs. Smash any adults if you see them. Giving the ground a good soaking will force them out of their burrows, allowing you to hit them with a hammer, a rock, or your shoe.
They over-winter in the soil, so even a cold frost won’t get rid of them. No bug I’ve seen is as good at destroying a plant than that pesky bug.
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So, what are these bugs? [mods, if you feel this should be in Cafe society feel free to move.]
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So, that’s what ya’ll do in Cafe Society? I never felt sophisticated enough to go there!
Well, there’s a lot of gardening stuff there . . .
All right then. I’ll do what I can to kill them. Thanks.
From what I understand, if you smash them, the scent attracts more.
I left for one weekend and I went from no bugs to two dead plants. I tried spraying them, but they just laughed it off. Hell, dropping them one at a time into a cup of straight pesticide barely killed them. Dusting the whole area with Sevin dust I think finally got them all. Unfortunately, it was enough to push the one surviving plant which was barely holding on anyway over the edge.
I say do what you have to do to kill them, as long as it’s legal. They’re worse than tomato hornworms.
ETA: Wow, I’ve got some hostility there.
[quote=“Bacon_Salt, post:6, topic:509484”]
From what I understand, if you smash them, the scent attracts more. [End QUOTE]
That does sound familiar, although I may be confusing this with various creatures who exude bad smells or blistering fluids when smashed.
I handpick nasties, using a stick to guide them into an old coffee can or cottage cheese container full of soapy water. (For some physics reason, the soap breaks the surface tension of the water and they drown much faster.) I dump the water out in the driveway at the end of the day, an effect my mother likens to displaying criminals hanging from the gallows.
These probably explain why the one zucchini plant suddenly wilted and looks like it’s dying. Our pumpkin plant suddenly died a couple of weeks ago also, but I did not see these bugs on it though I looked for pests.
Will these attack our tomato plants? I still have tons of ripening tomatoes that I’d hate to lose.
Tomato stems and leaves have compounds which are toxic to pretty much all animals, but stinkbugs are resistant to a lot of pesticides. However, if I understand correctly, it’s because they have particularly impermeable exoskeletons so ingesting poisons has the same effect as on other bugs.
ETA: The stinkbugs never went after my tomato plants so you should probably be okay.
I think you might be thinking of wasps, where killing them can supposedly cause them to emit attack pheremones, so that they tend to defend the hive.
These bugs can’t attack like wasps though - what would be the purpose of them being attracted to the spot where one of their species was killed? I would expect the opposite.
It’s definitely stink bugs that I’m thinking of, I just wasn’t sure if that factoid was folklore. What I would think would be the reason for such a counterintuitive response is that since stink bugs have such a characteristic smell, getting a whiff of smashed stink bug smell (they also release some of their scent if they’re disturbed) means there’s probably more stink bugs nearby, ergo potential mates. Just-so story, or pretty close to the truth? I don’t know.