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FW: Mean Ugly Bugs on my Tomatoes!

Thanks Bob!  I guess I now know where the "bites" came out of the tomatoes I
picked last night....8-)


Hi Julie,

> I believe a few weeks ago a post was put out about these bugs I'm now seeing
> in my garden.  They're about 1 inch long, greasy grey and wedge shaped with
an
> orange "V" on their back.  Their legs are flat, like spatulas, or leaves.
> They're bodies are relatively flat, too.  I believe they may be related to
> stink bugs...I thought they were squash bugs, but after seeing a photo of
one
> they're definitely different.

They sound like the Leaffooted Bug, /Leptoglossus phyllopus./  It's range
includes the southern US.  It feeds on bean, orange, pea, peach, pecan, potato
and tomato.

The triangular patch you saw is common to all true bugs.  Like most true bugs,
including squash and stink bugs, they have piercing mouths, inject saliva and
draw out partially digested cell sap.  Yuck eh?  Not to malign all true bugs,
some of them are predators of garden pests.

> Despite their horrid appearance and mean disposition, they don't seem to be
> doing anything to my garden other than sitting on my tomatoes and scaring
the
> **** out of me when they fly in my face... I haven't seen any damage to
> anything (I currently have squash, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant,
> swiss chard, and cattle beans).  Does anybody know what these guys are and
are

They look so innocent looking sitting there, hardly moving ... but they may be
feeding.  We have a very similar species up here in southern Canada, the Cedar
Bug as it's locally known.  Same spatula-like legs.  Anyway, they congregate
on
houses in the fall, looking for a warm place to overwinter and invariably some
end up inside the house.  Other than their predeliction for flying at you and
sometimes landing in your hair (! ... searching out the heat I guess) they are
pretty docile and slow moving creatures.  I thought them quite innocent until
I
wondered what they were living on ... and then noticed that they occaisionally
visited the houseplants.  A close look showed the mouthpieces, usually folded
up
under the chest, inserted into the plant!  They got away with it so long
because
they cause so little damage ... their primitive systems don't seem to require
much to survive.

<snip>

> Thanks in advance,
> Julie Sasser
> Central TX Zone 8
> marcesent@msn.com

Good luck Julie!

   ____________________
  |                    |
  |     Bob Carter     | Kootenay Bay, BC, Canada
  |  bcarter@awinc.com | Zone 6b
  |____________________|


Polymer physicists are into chains.

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