Gardener 7 : Stink bugs 0

Well, I have something to admit.  I have been seriously disrupting the sex lives of the leaf footed stink bugs that have been visiting my tomato plants.  And by disrupting I mean knocking the sex crazed pair into a bucket and then stomping on them until they are ex-stink bugs.

So far I have dispatched three 'couples' and a single female looking for a hookup.  Usually I feel a sense of remorse when I have to end the life of anything, including weeds as well as garden pests.  With these guys I get so weirded out about the whole 'bugs that stink' aspect of the thing that I am dancing around like a wimp and making furtive sissy girl slaps.  Apparently getting weirded out kills the whole remorse thing for me in this case.

So far no baby bugs but I am keeping my eyes peeled for their eventual entrance onto the scene.

Now here is something that I think is interesting and want to expound upon.  We have these milkweed assassin bugs all over our garden.  They are great at taking care of a number of insect pests and I am always overjoyed to see them in my garden.

Milkweed Assassin bug

This year we had them in droves except I never see them on the tomato plants.  I see them on plants in the same bed as the tomato plants, but never on the tomatoes themselves.  I have considered transporting a few of the adult assassin bugs onto the tomato plants in the hopes of getting them to attack the baby stinkbugs.  However, I don't think that will be successful due to the following reason.

This is what an assassin bug nymph looks like:

This is what a leaf footed stink bug nymph looks like:

See the resemblance?  They both have red bodies and black legs.  I think the assassin bugs ignore these baby stink bugs because they look too much like their own kids.  Of course that would only explain why they don't go after the stink bug nymphs, not why they seem to avoid the tomatoes entirely.  It also may be that assassin bugs eat their own nymphs like candy.  I don't know.

As soon as I see any stink bug nymphs I am going to try my experiment and see if the assassin bug will take care of the problem for me.  I will let you know how it turns out.

Garden Scally-wags

The dreaded day has come.  I have spotted my first of the nemesis that befalls my poor garden each year.  The dreaded leaf-footed stink bug has made its first appearance on one of my tomato plants.

She was just sitting there, not obviously assaulting a tomato, but I know, oh yes indeed I know.  Just like I know that this was a 'she' and not a 'he'.  There be eggs laid by that there bug and soon, much sooner than I like to think I will be seeing this:

Baby leaf-footed stink bugs who will mount a viscous assault on my poor dear tomatoes.  Woe is me.  And worse yet, not matter how valiantly I fight they will in the end win because between them, the mosquitoes and the unrelenting heat and humidity that is summer here - I will simply give up.

But not today!

"Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

So with Aragorn's monologue ringing in my brain I met this harbinger of doom.  Although  I was bare handed (and they don't call them stink bugs for nothing) I did what I had to do.  I gave that rascal a mighty thump with my index finger.  It was nearly twilight so I did not see if my blow had been a lethal one but fall she did that nasty pest.

Victory, however short lived is sweet.