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My potato patch has 100s of 1/2 inch long transparent green flying bugs. Not sure what these bugs are & they don't seem to be a problem yet. I decided to do an experiment, I put a bunch of sticks inside this electric BBQ grill and turned it on. It is that time of the day when sun is low on the horizon and wind is dead calm so smoke goes straight up. Maybe tomorrow when there is a breeze I can get smoke blowing through the potato plants. Wonder what smoke will do to bugs? Wonder what smoke will do to plants?

Smoke usually makes bees eat honey and retreat an smoke can keep mosquitoes at bay. I would say there would be some bugs that would be repelled by it. I don't know if the plants would appreciate though.

Take a picture of the transparent green bugs first. Maybe they are Green Lacewings — good Bugs. Have you seen any tiny white eggs attached to plants on a catwhisker like stalk?

Subject: GREEN LACEWINGS, Garden Patrol Sucking Insects/Eggs Squad

applestar wrote:Green Lacewing adults are delicate looking things, and their eggs are displayed artfully on delicate thin stalks.

...or maybe Green Mantisfly —

Subject: Winter Indoor Tomatoes and Garden 2017-18

applestar wrote:Sooo excited — I came across a new to me insect!
- Found in the Winter Indoor Garden.
- tiny — only about 1/2 inch long
- gorgeous light green with lacewing like wings
- looks like a tiny baby praying mantis? ...with wings????



~~~ of course I had to look it up. Almost immediately found a reference in list of NJ insects... which led me to this BugGuide listing

Zeugomantispa minuta - Green Mantisfly - BugGuide.Net
https://bugguide.net/node/view/40288

Range
e. US: NJ-WI south to FL-TX (rare in northern part of range); Central America to Venezuela(2)(3)(4)

Food
Predatory: larvae feed on spider eggs; adult small insects.

Life Cycle
Larvae penetrate spider egg sacks and develop as parasitoid

...and this...
Real Monstrosities: Mantisfly
https://www.realmonstrosities.com/2014/09/mantisfly.html

Well maybe, and it would be good to ID them. But in my experience, predator bugs never occur in the hundreds. Herbivore bugs do, but the predator bugs have to eat a lot of them. It's like rabbits and coyotes.

I captured 1 of the bugs they are praying mantis. These are good bugs I am not smoking them. I hope some of these bugs move to other parts of the garden.

Right. Predators only show up in such large local numbers when they've all just hatched from a single egg case.

Still beneficial. Probably not in danger from smoke, but probably not excited about it.

"Will Smoke kill bugs?"

Probably not. It may make them move along.

I keep bees and we use smoke to calm the bees. When a bee smells smoke, it will go in the hive and fill up on honey. It is believed they do this to be prepared to leave if the fire burns the hive . They can then carry some of their stores to start a new home. A bee full up on honey cannot bend its abdomen to sting you, so it helps the beekeeper to work the colonies without getting stung.