Subject: Insect ID
Geographic location of the bug: North Central Massachusetts
Date: 08/29/2018
Time: 05:18 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Can you please ID this bug I found on my cannabis plant?
How you want your letter signed: thanks, Hammer
Dear Hammer,
These are Stink Bug eggs, and generally, if a gardener finds a cluster of Stink Bug eggs on a cherished plant, it would be a problem, but thank to this BugGuide image, we have identified the eggs you found as those of a predatory Spined Soldier Bug in the genus Podisus. If you have not destroyed the eggs, we would urge you to return them or allow them to hatch and return the nymphs back to the plant because according to BugGuide: “preys on a wide variety of other arthropods, especially larval forms of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Examples: known to eat Mexican bean beetles, European corn borers, diamondback moths, corn earworms, beet armyworms, fall armyworms, cabbage loopers, imported cabbageworms, Colorado potato beetles, and velvetbean caterpillars.” We have learned that the Tobacco Budworm, Heliothis virescens, a species of Cutworm, can decimate a budding Cannabis plant that is close to harvest by burrowing into the center of the bud and feeding from the inside out without being detected until the entire bud turns brown. Here is a BugGuide image of the hatchling Spined Soldier Bugs so you can recognize them, and recognizing the adult Spined Soldier Bug will allow you to maintain the species in your garden so your crop will be more organic.