| We took care of the first potato beetles by hand-picking. Then these strange things appeared in the potato patch - researched, learned they are immature potato beetles (ipb). Hand-picked those. Then yesterday I came across an ipb that was being predated by another bug. The latter was about 1/5" long, shield-shaped, coppery-iridescent. Its proboscis (if that's what it was) was inserted in the ipb. I picked the leaf off, put it in a jar. A few hours later the ipb was dead, turning black and shrinking. We released the predator back into the potato patch.
Any ideas on what this garden buddy could be? It doesn't fit the description of any predator I've seen in books.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/images/1843029718 |
Here is a link that might be useful: ipb
| A true bug - hemiptera. A friend found a similar one in the garden today, crushed it and held it to my nose - definitely stank - ergo a stink bug? - which led to the google image search result below, which is very close to what I saw in the potato patch. We have a lot of similar bugs in the garden but of different colours and slightly different sizes. Wonder how many are predatory? |
Here is a link that might be useful: predatory stink bug
