CLOSED: Middling size green bugs - good or bad?

These are slightly larger than a lady bug.

They are a light green.

They are a very definite regular oval shape, tapering to a small head so they are all-over shaped like a fat tear drop.

No discernible wings.

Body flattened horizontally, slightly domed.

There may be tiny little knobs on their antennae.

Head very small, mouthparts too small for my ooooold eyes to make out.

I can't post a picture and haven't been able to find anything that really looks all that much like them in 2 hours of searching.

I found them crawling on my tomato fruits, but there was no sign of any damage to any of the fruit. They were not at all aggressive nor particularly shy - continued to crawl around happily on the tomato until I carried them inside, found a clear glass bowl to put them in, and knocked them in there with a glass lid as well. They don't do anything but crawl around - they can walk along the top of the glass lid without falling off.

Anybody have any ideas? Shall I free them, or flush them?

Sojourner

Possibly green stink bugs. They like tomatoes - suck the juice and leave little white hard spots. This is one species:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/69910

Aaaaaw ! I can't say they're not, I can't see them well enough to be for sure. I wish I had my optivisor. Old eyes. There's no such damage on my tomatoes, and I THINK they're more rounded/oval where the stink bugs you're showing me have more definite angle. I wish I could see better! But that's close to what they look like, except I can't see any sign whatsoever of wings as in the pic, and they don't seem so angular, more smoothly oval. But that could be because I don't see fine details that well anymore.

Also, there was a dead, dessicated bug carcass near where I found them - on the same fruit in fact. Is there ANY chance this is some sort of not-so-scary assassing bug?

They're still alive and crawling around. One more day reprieve? Maybe someone can save them yet?

Sojourner

If there are a bunch of them, they are not assassin bugs. They are having a picnic - somewhere on your tomato plant....they feed on plants. Assassin bugs dine alone.

Well I came home the day after my last post (the 5th) and found that one of the two little green bugs had shed it's skin and was now larger and looked just EXACTLY like the picture. Yup, green stink bugs.

They got flushed.

This is the only year I haven't sprayed with rotenone/pyrethrin, and while I'd say I got away with minimal damage (my eggplants, for instance, while showing some damage, have not been destroyed by flea beatles) I've also seen more bugs than I've ever seen before, and this is the first time I've ever lost squash plants (to bacterial wilt, carried by, among other things, squash bugs). I found two tomato worms happily munching away on two different tomato fruits. But overall there's been little damage.

Next year I won't be so lucky - they know where I live now! Next year I'll spray. There's really no reason to avoid using the rotenone/pyrethrum mix I usually use - it's organic. I just couldn't find any locally and never got around to mail ordering.

Sojourner

Just saw your post.... I am not an organic gardener - just a lazy one. LOL! But, since you had minimal damage, I would suggest not using the rotenone/pyrethrum mix - UNLESS there is a very definite need. Even "organic" sprays are toxic and kill beneficial insects too. The goal is to let the beneficial insects take care of the pests, but they can only do that if they are allowed to live.
Now that you know what those green stink bugs look like in their nymph stage, you can destroy them by hand before they grow up and can fly and reproduce....
Just my two cents worth....

The problem is that even though I didn't have many bugs, the ones I had carried disease. I lost all my squash, and after the squash plants were gone, the squash bugs moved to my watermelon and I lost that to disease, too. I also lost half of my tomato plants (OK, I only had two, but still) to an insect-born disease.

I have used the Rotenone/pyrethrum mixture for about 30 years, and I have never had a problem with it killing off beneficial insects. If they don't eat the plant parts I spray it on, they really don't get a dose of the stuff. Also, it only persists in the environment for 24 to 72 hours. The only caveat with this stuff is that you must not use it near fish ponds, creeks or streams - rotenone is highly toxic to fish. When I had a butterfly garden (and I mean the weeds the larvae eat as well as pretty butterfly flowers), I did not spray those patches. It may be bad for butterfly and moth larvae, I don't know, but since most of those critters don't prefer my squash and tomato plants, we're all good.

I will spray next year. It's not just the physical damage that bugs do from munching, it's also to protect against the diseases they carry.

Sojourner

You have to do what you have to do. And yes, it would be toxic to butterfly and moth larvae too.