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Assassins!

PepperWhisperer

PepperWhisperer

A few pics of my Garden Defense Force
1) Assassin on a flower
2) Assassin and his latest victim
3) Assassin hanging out
assassin_flower.jpg
assassin_victim.jpg
assassin2.jpg
 
They are first or second instar assassin bug nymphs, about 3-4 mm long. They will eventually grow up to about 3 cm and turn more brown with black wings that fold back against the body. They are a relative of the praying mantis and eat just about any kind of insect, hence the name. These guys keep my aphid population in check, and occasionally snag a mosquito.

I've never heard of anybody selling them like ladybugs, but they should. They are a predator to all kinds of crop pests.
 
PW. You need to check out the Photo Album thread in The Lounge. Specifically page 23, post #443.


Phenomenal pictures, man!
 
and from personal experience, the WILL bite you and it HURTS!!!
 
^^^ I've wondered about that. Sometimes while working on my plants I will find one has crawled onto me but so far no bites. I usually get a twig or a leaf and get them to crawl up on that off my arm so I can put them back in the plants. I tried just blowing them off but those legs have a very strong grip! In pic #2 you can really get an idea of the size of the jabbers these guys are working with, not something I want stabbed into me.
 
Ya be careful these have horrible bites apparently with reports of them being 10x worse than a hornet sting and remaining an open wound or blister or something for several months...

HOWEVER.... Do you have alot of these running around? Where ar you located?
 
I am in Texas, the varieties with the really horrible bites don't live in this part of the world as far as I know. There are at least 8-10 that size in my pepper trees right now, they eventually start to leave and I usually only see one or two by the time they are fully grown.
 
I have several on my plants as well, and pest problems have been all but nonexistent for me this year.
 
Hmm, I had these eat my pods last year. Anyone else have that problem? They basically stripped the skin off them until I killed em all. This year the caterpillars are eating them. My defenses are various types of spiders, lol. Man there are tons of spiders this year!

Edit: Opps, they were probably some other kind of nymph I had last year. They look so similar. Do these assassin bugs eat caterpillars? I could use more defenses than spiders (they must be slacking!) .
 
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