I had that plague last year but handpicked religiously---up to 300 of them a day---and so far, knock on wood, haven't seen a single one yet this year.

I have seen only two cabbage worms, but there's plenty of holes in my cabbage and broccoli leaves. I'd assumed it was grasshoppers in the absence of hordes or cabbage worms or loopers (and because we have about 4 billion grasshoppers), but today I found the culprits----harlequin bugs, which I've never had here in quantity before. I have had one or two in a given year, killed it and never found another one. Well, today I found and killed a good 15 or 20 harlequin bugs.

In an attempt to teach Tim something new, I showed them to him and he said "they look like lady bugs". Yep, go ahead and roll your eyes. You can lead a husband to the garden and make him look at interesting and new insects, but you can't make him see that harlequin bugs do not resemble lady bugs!!!! (He'd laugh if he reads this because he knows it is true.) I want to know why he can barely glance at a vehicle driving up the road and tell you its make, model and year, but cannot tell a harlequin bug from a lady bug. I told him the harlequin bug's shape and size was wrong for a lady bug, and he said "but the colors are right". He can, however, identify a potato bug when he sees one. I think.