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pests Lots of bugs and not sure what they are!

OzzyRulez

OzzyRulez

Hey guys I was wondering if any of you know what these are and if they are bad. All of my pepper plants are covered in them. I don't want to kill them if they are beneficial but there are so many I'm worred as to what they actually are! There are literally hundreds of them spread among my 6 various pepper plants.

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I don't know what they are but considering how many you have and that you don't mention your plants being stripped to the ground yet, I'd assume they are predatory/beneficial. Check the pods though to be sure there is no damage to them.
 
Some of my Ghosts are showing signs of somthing eating them, like little round holes chewed into some. Not many though and I haven't observed any of these guys doing it and with as many as there is not many peppers are damaged.
 
I have seen the regular looking stink bugs puncturing my pods and later that spot turns a different color making a splotchy looking pod. I always smash them despite their strong unpleasant odor they leave on my fingers as I throw them to the ground and stomp.

Some of the smaller bugs in your pic resemble baby assasin bugs.

Mike
 
Well I did some googling. Seems they are stink bugs and they are bad news. I just looked a little more and my serranno is seriously infested with them. Which makes sense since they are the "juiciest" of the peppers I have. According to what I was reading the smaller ones are in the nymph stage and they do resemble assassin bugs but stink bugs tend to be in large groups and assassin bugs are solitary. Looks like I'll be debugging my garden. It sucks I usually let the spiders and green anole lizards take care of it but apparently they don't like stink bugs.
 
SanPatricio said:
Whatever the hell the bugs are -- THANKS for the GREAT photography ! I am going to save your pic .
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Thanks! Believe it or not these were taken with my Galaxy Nexus!

Dave2000 said:
Not all stink bugs eat plants, some are predators. Collect one and put it in a jar. Throw in a piece of pepper, an aphid and a leaf and see which it prefers.
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Well I got to looking at the Serranno and there were lots of peppers damaged in splotches like the article I found on Google described. I even found a few of them with their feeding tubes in the peppers so unfortunately they were eating my stuff. A lot of Datil's had complete chunks missing out of them too they have been pretty busy.
 
Those are fantastic reference pics for leaf footed bugs! We should make a combined post so people can ID their bugs, I have seen great photos of aphids, ladybugs, assassin bugs, and now leaf footed bugs on this forum.

P.S. looks like you have a mild nutrient deficiency in your peppers, notice the slight yellowing between the veins on the leaves.
 
Sorta resembles a box elder bug. For me bugs are not touching any of my plants except my cucumbers

I have no clue why! Last year they ate everything
 
PepperWhisperer said:
Those are fantastic reference pics for leaf footed bugs! We should make a combined post so people can ID their bugs, I have seen great photos of aphids, ladybugs, assassin bugs, and now leaf footed bugs on this forum.

P.S. looks like you have a mild nutrient deficiency in your peppers, notice the slight yellowing between the veins on the leaves.
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Yeah definitely see if we can get them added to the other pictures. That would be great!

This particular plant is in the ground growing away from all my other plants, growing where my tomato plants were until a hail storm killed them. Honestly I'm not sure what it is, I planted all super hots and these things are definitely not super hots at all and weird looking. Its also in direct sunlight and hating it, and it could very well need some fertilizer. It was just the first plant I noticed all the bugs on.
 
Yo Ozzy,

You are correct, what you have there is Leptoglossus phyllopus (Eastern Leaf Foot Bug). Besides the fact that they are one cool looking insect, they will continue to feast on your pods. I would be surprised if they went for anything higher in capsaicin than the datils, even that blows my mind that they're munching those. Normally they feast on citrus crops and other fruits and veggies, when it comes to peppers; banana, bell and other sweet peps are usually the victims. Get some predatory assassin bugs or mantids and create your own monster bug wars. Get some [background=rgb(248, 245, 235)]Platymeris biguttatus (African White Spots) let em go to town, then I'll buy em off yah, be careful though, they can bite like an SOB. :)[/background]

Good Vibes,

Alex
 
Tweak Sairaxx said:
Yo Ozzy,

You are correct, what you have there is Leptoglossus phyllopus (Eastern Leaf Foot Bug). Besides the fact that they are one cool looking insect, they will continue to feast on your pods. I would be surprised if they went for anything higher in capsaicin than the datils, even that blows my mind that they're munching those. Normally they feast on citrus crops and other fruits and veggies, when it comes to peppers; banana, bell and other sweet peps are usually the victims. Get some predatory assassin bugs or mantids and create your own monster bug wars. Get some [background=rgb(248, 245, 235)]Platymeris biguttatus (African White Spots) let em go to town, then I'll buy em off yah, be careful though, they can bite like an SOB. :)[/background]

Good Vibes,

Alex
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Oh they definitely seem to prefer the Serrano over the Datil. The Ghost had way less than the Datil too. The mystery pepper had a fair amount on but its nowhere near as healthy as the 4 year old Datil or Serrano plants. Only 5 pods on it compared to the hundreds on the other plants. Its probably a because they have no choice they are eating the hotter peppers.
 
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]the small bug looks like assassin to me while the others are "stink bugs" [/background]
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See, this is why we need a bug ID thread. I'm not picking on you, because assassin nymphs and leaf footed nymphs are similar, but this issue comes up a lot. Leaf footed bugs are a minor to moderate pest, and should probably be eradicated. Assassin bugs are 100% beneficial and should not be disturbed. So it is pretty important to be able to tell the difference.

FYI these are definitely leaf footed bug nymphs. Notice that the spots on the back are black and you can already see the "leaf" forming on the second segment of the hind legs.
 
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