Remember this bug from my May 2 post? It's a Harlequin bug. I had them on my stressed-out brussels sprouts. I removed the brussels sprouts after I removed the bugs! Done deal, or so I thought! A few days ago I found one Harlequin bug on the seed head of a dandelion. I picked the seed head with the bug and took it over to bare ground so I could squish it. Their mode of defense is to drop to the ground, but otherwise seemed pretty docile. That made it easy for me to hold a bottle with some soapy water in it underneath the bug, then it drops down---and no more bug! Well, I dropped this bug onto the ground (I didn't have the bottle with me) and it ran crazy-fast, like a roach! What a shock! But, I did finally squish him.
Yesterday evening, as I strolled out in the garden (a good thing to do daily, you can see problems when they first occur) I noticed a dark thing on my bok choi plants that I let go to flower. I saw that it was a bug that resembled the Harlequin, but it was a different color. It's hard to see, but it has a bright orange dot on it's back, and orange just peeking out from under it's wings. I got my bottle of soapy water and took care of it. Then I noticed more of them. I hope I got them all! They were also on my turnips that I had let go to flower.
I had another shock when I found the same kind of bug in green! Will it never end?!? Actually, I found two green bugs. They are all from the stink bug family and do about the same kind of damage. For this reason, I will get rid of everything I have growing in my yard that is from the cole family. Hopefully, that will be the end of that. They prefer the cole crops, but will go after other things such as tomatoes. They can hang around the garden and happily multiply all year long if not eliminated.
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