Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: Please ID & tell how to get rid of, 1 by IrisLover79

IrisLover79 wrote:
Hi everyone,

I hope you can help me. I've seen these bugs before and only ever heard them called "Halloween bugs," because they're orange & black and are usually around in the autumn. Last autumn, I had a pumpkin vine growing and they were all over. I mean TONS of them. They didn't seem to harm any plants (they were mostly on already decaying material, like the compost heap and dead logs), but there were just SO MANY of them. I hate bugs and am afraid of them. Well, I thought they'd die off in the winter. They did, but now they're back and covering my garage! My main flower bed is next to the garage and I'm afraid to garden in it, with all these hoards of bugs around, HELP! What are they and how do I get rid of them?! Any insecticide I'd spray on them would run off into the soil and I'm afraid that might harm the plants. What can I do to get rid of them?!

I thought they might be either the Small Milkweed Bugs Lygaeus kalmii or the Large Milkweed Bugs Oncopeltus fasciatus, but now I'm not so sure. There are no milkweeds around me, anyway. I think they're from the Order Hemiptera, that's all I can tell so far. It's odd because they change colors & markings as they mature. I'll post pix of 3 stages of development. I may not need to know what they are in order to get rid of them, but I'm curious. Help?

~Kristy

Here's what the look like when they're mature and heard them referred to as "Halloween bugs."