Help Identify Insect

[SmokingWings]

We took several plants out to the farm (June 18th) where they would be part of someone's outdoor grow. Decided to do this as an experiment after the invitiation. Yesterday we went out to take a look. The first thing I noticed, after the change in size over the past 3 1/2 weeks to their plants and mine was damage to more leaves than I would like to see. I have grown one or more plants outside in '17, '18 and this summer in the back yard and have not noticed any damage by insects, lack of nutrients or other causes. But then, those get my courtesy attention once or twice a day as my daughter said.

I do know that the woman on the farm sprayed for insects (Neem) about 10 days ago as part of her routine. I am not in any panic but if anyone knows the names of the insects I can start to research them, figure out which one is the real problem and if any of them are predator insects feeding on slugs, mites or other insects. Then I can spray with something that will do minimal damage to good insects or the plants themselves.

The first & last photo show a sample of the damage. I started looking for the culprit and found a number of the black and green insect. They do look a bit like a firefly but do not match any pictures of flreflies that I have looked at. Click on the photos for a larger view if you want.



I did notice these other insects, but just one or two total, on some of her plants.

 

[Carcass]

The black and yellow one is a cucumber beetle-you'll want to get rid of those,they can infect your plants with a bacteria which gets into the plants vascular system and kills it from the inside out....They allegedly don't eat cannabis-but I wouldn't want them around anyway...

The bottom right pic looks like a stinkbug,which you also don't want around because they're destructive leaf-eaters.
Not sure about the bottom left pic,probably also a type of stinkbug.

 

[SmokingWings]

The black and yellow one is a cucumber beetle-you'll want to get rid of those,they can infect your plants with a bacteria which gets into the plants vascular system and kills it from the inside out....They allegedly don't eat cannabis-but I wouldn't want them around anyway...

The bottom right pic looks like a stinkbug,which you also don't want around because they're destructive leaf-eaters.
Not sure about the bottom left pic,probably also a type of stinkbug.

Thank you for the help. I have not had an insect problem in my vegetable, flower or patio gardens for years. Natural deterents, but not controls, include Dill Weed, Rosemary and, surprisingly, Sunflowers. My yard is filled with Dill, I have a couple of Mint beds and I propagate Rosemary for the fun of it. I the last 5 years I started planting all types of Sunflower just to impress my family, friends, neighbors, in-laws and outlaws with how tall I can get them and the colors of the flower heads. I know that I have seen those insects many times but could not remember the names. Figure the other stuff is discouraging them from hanging around the yard.

My patio Cannabis is being stealth grown and is surrounded by Geraniums and Rosemary plants and several other culinary herbs.

I've started researching cucumber beetles and it seems that they are becoming a problem in some areas on the east side or east coast of the US and in Colorado, especially cannabis grows in the southern part of the state. I have not found any photos that match the color of those beetles but the shape is right. As for the stinkbug, there is an invasive variety of them that started in the Orient and has now been found on cannabis in Europe and is now found on the east coast and, guess where, Colorado. Some articles have it showing up in the US first and then Europe.

This invasive variety is called the Brown Marmorated stink bug. None of the several 100 photos I looked at were anywheres near the color pattern of the one in my photo. But, that small one is probably a juvinile based on some photos of the life cycle of stink bugs.

Some stink bugs like to eat insects including mites and beetles. I have no clue, yet, if that one pictured is a leaf eater or not. I guess that some might switch back and forth eating the other bugs when convenient but did not read anything authoritative to support that belief.

I let the couple living on the old farm know what kind of bugs I found there based on the comments so far. I mentioned that I read several times that Neem is considered a control for both types of insects and left it up to them. She already uses Neem on a regular basis for her outdoor and indoor growing.

More reading is needed and one thing I will be looking for is another option that might be stronger than Neem for those two insects, but would still be considered a natural control.

Again, thank you @carcass for the reminder on the names. Have a good day.

 

[SmokingWings]

I have identified the smaller insect, the one with the green stripes, @carcass .

A couple of weeks ago, while reading the Sunday newspaper (the real one printed on real paper) I made it through to the gardening column.

What did my eye spy but the same critter. The Macomb Daily and the Oakland Press (newspapers for two counties here in southeast Michigan) use some of the same articles and I was able to find the original article. BTW, the author, Gretchen Voyle worked for years and years for the Agricultural Co-operative Extension Service and still does a question & answer column just about every week even though she is now retired.

The insect is called the Four-Lined Plant Bug (Poecilocapsus lineatus).

The article that I came across in the newspaper---
https://www.theoaklandpress.com/lifestyles/small-bugs-suck-holes-through-your-garden-plants-leaves/article_f43aba90-9c35-11e9-bbc4-ab93d14b1437.html

I did a web search using four-lined plant bugs as the search words and found a lot of photos that tell me that I am looking at the same bug. Plus photos of the bug at other periods of its life cycle. Articles on controlling the insect indicate that control measures are typical insecticide spraying and organic insecticides work well.

Since reading the article I took the drive up to the farm twice to look at the plants. Plants are doing well. The woman has sprayed a couple of times since my original posting. One time with Neem that I know of. The other time might have been with Capt. Jacks or whatever that popular product is. On both trips up there I did not notice any insect damage to the leaves or stems with the exception of a few spots that could be mite caused. Certainly nothing to get excited about.

This late in the year any new insect damage would probably be minimal, very minimal. Just going to have to watch the early to mid October temperature changes as those will bring on morning dew that could take 3 to 6 hours to dry instead of the typical one or two hours that it takes in late August.

Enjoy the day, it could be the best one ever.

 

[Carcass]

Cool,I learned something! I didn't mean to steer you wrong on the bug, at least the treatment is the same for getting rid of them.
Glad they didn't do too much damage!

 

[SmokingWings]

Cool,I learned something! I didn't mean to steer you wrong on the bug, at least the treatment is the same for getting rid of them.
Glad they didn't do too much damage!

It made sense to me after you mentioned it. Same body shape and same body sections; it did look like a cucumber beetle.

I just felt that it was a fun part of life and learning stuff when I stumbled on the article talking about the same insect. If I read the article right, and the other articles I found when I did the searches, the active eating stage is not all that long. It also seems that the beetle has a single life cycle per year.

 

[Carcass]

That single life cycle per year is a good thing-I've had aphids before that seemed to also have a single life cycle...per day...