Good or Bad Bugs

[bbjm]

I have found several tiny bugs on my plants. They look like tiny grasshoppers. About 1/4 inch. Wispy little things. I kill them all. Some are green, some are white, and some are almost clear. Is there ever a good bug that looks like that? I know what a baby mantis looks like, so it's not that.

(Thanks in advance for the help. I'm no good at the critter id websites. I had a bug that practically wiped me out last year and never did get a good id. I need a good color bug field guide like they use for birds.)

BTW, are roley poleys (pill bugs or whatever else they are called) good or bad? If I lift my straw mulch, there are hundreds of them. A couple were on my cukes, but looked like they were eating the blossom on the end, so I didn't do anything to them.

I smush with my fingers everything but: spiders, ants (that aren't harvesting aphids), lady bugs, mantis, and roley poleys. I even leave alone horn worms with wasp eggs attached -- as hard as that is. I had a huge one last year that the wasps could not have found a place for another egg. Very surreal.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by bbjm

I have found several tiny bugs on my plants. They look like tiny grasshoppers. About 1/4 inch. Wispy little things. I kill them all. Some are green, some are white, and some are almost clear. Is there ever a good bug that looks like that? I know what a baby mantis looks like, so it's not that.

Aphids, maybe?

http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...h+Images&gbv=2

BTW, are roley poleys (pill bugs or whatever else they are called) good or bad? If I lift my straw mulch, there are hundreds of them. A couple were on my cukes, but looked like they were eating the blossom on the end, so I didn't do anything to them.

According to some, they will only eat dead or decaying matter. This is not my experience here in the South.

The two main difficulties I've seen/experienced with them is that they will crawl into any cracks in your fruit and start snacking (yuk!). Also, they will sometimes munch on little seedlings (tomatoes, ornamentals, whatever) but usually leave larger plants alone.