Good bug or bad bug?

[Kassaundra]

This little bug was found on potatoes and lentils, I've never seen one before and was wondering if it were good and eating the aphids, or a bad one?

Any ideas?

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Way cool bug. Don't know what it is, but perhaps those are egg casings or parasitic wasps on its back???

 

[digitS']

It is a white ladybug larva:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/300779

Maybe you should find a different home for her and spray the plants with something like insecticidal soap and rinse the plants tomorrow. That's what I'd do, anyway. The plants have quite a population of aphids.

It would be great if you had about 100 ladybug larvae for that plant!

Steve

 

[Kassaundra]

OHHHHHH awesome, thanks Lady bugs are always welcome in my yard!!!!! There are about 20 or more on the potato plants, yes there are alot of aphids, but the potatoes are near the end of life anyway, about to be dug up.

 

[thistlebloom]

Wow Kassaundra, those are the best pics! I never knew that ladybug larvae came in white, I've only seen the standard orange and black ones. Thanks Steve for the continuing education!

 

[digitS']

Ah, zone 7 . . .

One of the orange & black "little monsters" was just sitting on my stool out on the lawn. Funny how scary the larva look and how cute the adults are.

What you might want to do is go thru your potato plants with the weedwacker, Kassaundra. I used to do that but the commercial guys may well spray chemicals to kill the plants. Either way, the skin of the tubers will toughen and make digging and storage work better. They will need a week or more underground after the vines are killed.

The weedwacker might send the lady bugs flying but they'd probably be okay. The aphids will be in a world of hurt not having their plant to suck the life out of.

Steve

 

[Kassaundra]

Wow Kassaundra, those are the best pics! I never knew that ladybug larvae came in white, I've only seen the standard orange and black ones. Thanks Steve for the continuing education!

Thanks I love taking pics especially macro, on my Facebook I've posted almost 2500 pics and that is the smallest fraction of the ones I have in my computers slave drive.

I also post alot more pics on BYC I have more space for pics on that forum.

 

[JaimeB]

Those are some great pics. If you have the larvae on your plants It's a good sign. Lady bugs will lay their eggs in Aphid populations and the larvae will eat up to 400 Aphids apiece. There are probably more eggs to hatch

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Really cool pictures! Thanks for sharing.