Not sure... I'm pretty poor at identifying bugs, but the first may be a Lacewing larvae(aphid lion) and the 2nd may be lady beetles. Both would be good guys.

But your best bet is to post these pics in the "pests and diseases" forum. The crew there is very good at identification.

Kevin

This post was edited by woohooman on Fri, Jun 7, 13 at 0:22

Squash bugs, get rid of them, not beneficial.

Mark

Not Lacewing Larva or Ladybugs.

Try scale...There is a fuzzy version of ladybug larva BUT I think you have scale in a couple different stages of growth.

Here is a link that might be useful: scale

See! I told you I was lousy at pest ID. ;)

Kevin

Maybe poor at bug I.D. but good at growing the heat.
Pretty good average I'd say.

I use good bugs to get rid of bad guys.
Been wrong a LOT of times but it always ended up once I figured out the bad guy,the good guys took control and I never had problems with whatever after that.
Just new bad guys to mess with. :)

Mites suck and the only cure is to kill every plant you are growing that season.
Start new next year...

I don't know why ladybugs are so highly regarded.
Lacewing Larva are way better hunter killers.
The larva eats anything they can get close to.
Plus they are a lot easier to get estblished.
Ladybugs are wooses compared to lacewing larva.
Only nastier bugs are Nematodes and Wasps.

Nematodes crawl into grub butts and eat the bad guy from the inside out.
Wasps lay eggs in aphids or on catapilars and do the same thing.
BT stops caterpillars from eating and kills them along with a LOT of different grubs in the soil.

Google some of the wasp videos.
Aphid wasps are cool to watch.
They stay around about 5 yrs or longer after you introduce them to your garden.
For scale there is a wasp cyrphid fly type thing that gets them.

Depending on your winters etc. these guys work for years.
I'm in S. Ca. we have no winter.

Here is a link that might be useful: good guy info

Mike:

Where do you get your lacewing larvae from? I was going to purchase some this year. I'm growing flowers to attract and keep them around once I buy them. Tip-Top Bio is who Armstrong's recommended, but they seem a bit pricy

Btw, I believe minute pirate bugs and predatory mites are supposed to control the bad mites.

Kevin

I guess that once the cold wet weather breaks up north here, we will have to start dealing with the bug issue as well. I guess "Be careful what you wish for" is a fitting phrase.
Bruce

I use tip top but they are sold up the street-no shipping fee.

Shipping sucks,costs more than the product.

My plants are covered with Lacewing eggs.
I haven't had to buy eggs for years.

NOTHING keeps up with mites.

I tried EVERY mite predator and once spider mites or broad mites get going ,you are screwed.

Spider mite webs had tons of ladybug and lacewing larva caught in the webs.
the predator mites only eat certain other mites.They were useless in general.
Pirate bugs eat what was tastiest to them and I think ate more other stuff than mites(lacewing larva etc.).
Baby mantis died in mite webs.

Mites are bad news.

I spent a ton of $ for 4 seasons trying to get rid of spider and broad mites with every poison and good bug available with no success.
until I let EVERYTHING indoors and out die,I couldn't get rid of them.
MONTHS after my grow shelves were empty I had spider mite webs coming out of my Fluoros from mites that hibernated inside the fixture waiting until things got right for them to come out.
When there were no plants to eat they died.
MITES SUCK!
btw. NEEM also sucks.Tons of supposed miticide is neem based.
Neem is useless for everything as far as I can see.
Soap spray is as good as neem.

Hot shot no pest strips are the only thing that killed indoor mites.BUT they are REAL nasty to be around in general.