Confused! - Mirid bugs - friend or foe?

[solid7]

I am receiving multiple, conflicting points of view, when trying to determine if Mirid bugs are friends or enemies.

Many of the sites that I look up list mirid bugs as tomato pests. However, just as many list it as a beneficial predatory insect, with some sites even selling it, as such.

I am so confused! My plants are crawling with these things. They're supposedly predators of whitefly, but I can't say that my whitefly population is drastically diminished in the presence of mirids. I'm also not really noticing any signs of damage, per se.

Any advice is appreciated.

[saltmarsh]

If you have Deraeocoris nebulosus, you're good to go as they prefer other insects as food rather than plants.

http://www.biocontrol.entomology.cor...eraeocoris.php

If you have Creontiades dilutus , you have problems as it feeds on many plants normally found in a vegetable garden.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...0.00800.x/full

and can overwinter in other primary host plants found in the area outside the garden.

Hope this makes it a little less confusing. Claud

[solid7]

I can't even begin to tell the difference in the so-called different "species" of these things.

Nesidiocoris tenuis
Macrolophus caliginosus
Creontiades dilutus

Could be any of them, I guess, and I don't have a camera right now that's good enough to get a snap of them... They're too small.

[saltmarsh]

I have the same problem with identifying them. If you see them in the act of sucking on leaves or fruit I would say you know enough to decide what to do.

[solid7]

That's just it... They're too small to see them sucking on anything. I thought I saw one harrassing a whitefly the other day, but I haven't seen that behavior repeated.