[incredible edible]

Hi, its my first post on here. I had to register just so I could reply because I've had these things in my flat and they destroy your plants. They are some sort of weevil, they hide in the nooks and crannies of your plants so you need to check all those kinds of places, they seem to like hiding in the dark. They are also attracted to water, I put a few plant pot saucers around the place which got some. The only thing I could do was manually get rid by checking my plants everyday. I think they also hide in the soil and can attack roots so look in the soil around your plants too.  I know what you mean about creepy, there IS something odd about these things. I don't hate many things (apart from banks, politicians etc) but these came close. Good luck.

[poultrygeist]

Still haven't found what they could be.

Done a bit of searchign and this is probably the best webpage for reference..

http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/insects.htm

Doesn't look like a weevil or a shield bug. Some sort of beetle but the markings aren't like anything there.
Is there an entemologist in the house ?

Rob

[andreadon]

don't get me started rob!
when the thread first went up i spent about an hour and a half on the internet looking for bugs that looked like that.
i found a really good german website that had all the latin names on, but i still couldn't find it on there!

[poultrygeist]

Could do with knowing what plant is was on. Some seem very fussy.

[Bombers]

They hardly move when disturbed/plant being a pepper plant.

Rob, If this helps?

[poultrygeist]

Glad you spotted that. Well done 

I'll read it next time.

Don't think there was anythign specific to peppers or similar.

Rob

[Bombers]

Glad you spotted that. Well done 

I'll read it next time.

Don't think there was anythign specific to peppers or similar.

Rob

No, I've just had a quick look, and there's nothing obvious?

[pushrod]

it's definitely a beetle rather than an insect.

  beetles are insects. They both belong to phylum Arthropoda and class Insecta.

Difficult to tell from the photo without any idea of scale but i would guess one is an adult aphid and the other is an immature one. However, no idea what type of aphid - there are many types.

[Ropster]

could it be one of these ?

http://www.britishbugs.org.uk/heteroptera/idcards/life_stages.html

look at the young pied shield bug's

[pumpkinpatch]

you could get whats called a bug blaster it hucks up to your hose and it wont damage your plants here is the link: http://www.organiccatalogue.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=62_185&products_id=2282

sorry if the URL doesnt work im new to the forums

[pushrod]

Do they both squish easily? shield bugs  are very obviously dorso ventrally flattened and will be quite physically tough and strong compared to aphids which are very soft and easy to squish.

[poultrygeist]

I think shield bugs aren't the squishing kind !

As far as I know, they're either harmless or useful. And very nice to look at IMO.

Rob

[pushrod]

I think shield bugs aren't the squishing kind !

As far as I know, they're either harmless or useful. And very nice to look at IMO.

Rob

That's what i said - their exoskeleton is physically strong. They are, however, herbivores - feeding on stem sap, but are not usually much of a problem as they are not such prolific breeders as the aphids, which can reproduce without even mating.