I had these bugs last year BAD and they are already all over my oleander and some other plants. I don't have a picture but they are about a half inch long, skinny, bright orange with a black saddle and spindly legs. If it's not a good enough description, I can snag a picture but was hoping someone would know just from the description. No wings. Thank you!!
Friend or foe?
Greenie, there's a few nymphs that fit that description. Did those bugs eat your plants? If not, they may be predator bugs which don't eat the plants.
Here's an Assassin bug nymph, did it look like this?
http://bugguide.net/images/cache/IHVHGHBH9HGZ8LEZLLWZGL9ZHLTH5H6Z8H8Z0L4Z0LGZ0LOHRL1HSLGZRLAH8HOH7H5ZRLGZLLWZLLOHNHLRILBZ.jpg
That's what they look like. No, they don't seem to be actually eating the plants that I can tell. Right now they are all over my daylily foliage and everywhere else too. There's just tons of them so I assume if they were destructive, I'd be able to easily tell. We have had so many problems with aphids the last couple of years and they destroyed a LOT of our garden last summer. I wanted to know what I was dealing with ahead of time if this was a bad guy.
To many they are considered a beneficial insect because they are meat eaters and eat other bugs. They are gregarious when young but eventually will be solitary when they get wings. They won't eat your plants just the bugs that they find on them. You can move them, before they get wings, around to plants that have bugs, just be careful, they can give you a jab......, just scoop them into a jar or something.
If you saw them on your daylilies, the assassin bug may be eating the aphids. I am constantly battling aphids on the daylilies. I use soap and blasts of water to rid them. Sometimes, I use my fingers and jsut sqeeze them off.