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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Stink Bugs, Squash Bugs, Leaf Footed Bugs, Assasin Bugs?

If you've been around the forum for a while, you know I'm not half bad at ID'ing bugs and plants... right? :wink:

But these Stink Bugs, Squash Bugs, Assasin Bugs, and I suppose Leaf Footed Bugs. They are confusing me to no end. I look at the pictures and study them, but once I'm out there in the garden, I can't tell them apart. :roll: :oops:

I know most of what I'm seeing are Brown Marmorated Stinkbugs, with their checkered black/white design on their legs and the edges, but I occasionally find other ones in my cup of water that I coax them into jumping in. :?

Maybe I need to print out and make a laminated card to carry around with me.... :roll:

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gixxerific
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Location: Wentzville, MO (Just West oF St. Louis) Zone 5B

Or catch one in a jar or something and bring it in.

I know I have a ton of bugs in the garden and I am not sure what they all are. But trying to catch all of them would take a while.

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Ozark Lady
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Location: NW Arkansas, USA zone 7A elevation 1561 feet

Do you remember being a kid and collecting bugs?
I think mostly butterflies were collected, and straight pinned onto a sheet of styrofoam, and preserved?
I didn't have to do it when I was a kid, but I also got out of dissecting a frog, so that was good.

What if you caught one of each, and made up a chart with the bug on styrofoam, then Id it, and keep the chart, maybe in your 'mudroom'?

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nedwina
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Location: CT River Valley

Leaf footers have those funky flanges on their hind legs. Squash bugs are narrow & have the black & white pattern on the sides. Predatory shield/stink bugs (usually) have sharp points sticking out on either side of their prothroax.

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Sunrise_Anne
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Location: Middle Georgia

For what it's worth, Assassin Bugs really look menacing to me (if I were another insect). Here's one I found in my garden:

[img]https://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb223/anney_2007/100_0510.jpg[/img]

[url=https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/SustAg/assassinbug.html]The pictures on this site[/url] are much more detailed, but you can probably eventually recognize them by their LONG legs and feelers and narrow head-segments even if you don't catch the colors.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Hey thanks! :D

I'm actually seeing Leaf-footed bugs which I don't think I've seen in my garden before. The Stink Bugs are trying to get in the house since we've had some cooler nights. :x

Only good that's come out of it is my kids are finally getting used to them and no longer scream for me to come get the bugs -- older one can catch them on her own, and younger one has made some attempts, though a couple of nights ago, she was sitting OUTSIDE the doorway to a room to watch TV because she lost sight of a Stink Bug that was in the room.... :roll:

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hendi_alex
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Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina

Assassin bugs are generally loners, unless you catch a couple in the act of mating. The leaf footed bugs, which I mostly see associated with squash or tomatoes (two different species of bugs) are often in clusters. Also their orange or when older greyish white nymphs will often be seen in groups of a dozen or more. As someone pointed out, the leaf footed are named such because their lower leg is flat, blade shaped. The assassin bugs have cylindrical legs. Also the proboscis of the plant sucking leaf footed is thin, perhpas jointed and much less lethal looking than the hooked and very pointed proboscis of the assassin bug. Another thing, one of the more common assassin bugs has warning colors of bright orange and black, but there is a similar mimic of the leaf footed variety.

I tend to see the leaf footed squash bugs from early mid summer until the plants die. The leaf footed tomato pest doesn't usually show up here until a few weeks later. It is like they don't really need the tomato juices until the hot dry part of summer arrives. This year I controlled them by spraying with a soft spray water breaker. When wet, the insects either drop or more often just sit still, making it easy to collect and squish them.



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