A lot of bugs in the garden eat a little bit, move to the next stage of development, and are gone. The holes in leaves stimulate growth. If you let them get you angry, you won't enjoy the garden.

You can tap bugs into a can of soapy water, squish them, wash them off, etc. There are many ways to control bugs that don't involve poison, which you don't want in your food, do you? Poisons kill the good bugs, too.
Many bugs are beneficial and actually eat or parasitize the bad bugs. Some pollinate the plants (not just bees do this).
I know it can be frustrating when you have a destructive invasion, but other than that, try to see the web of life and the balance in your garden.

I've seen that last thing before and would like to know what they are, too... When I saw them I assumed they were some type of beetle.

Your first image tells me exactly what that insect is, even without a picture of the culprit. It's the Four Lined Plant Bug.

Can't really tell for sure about the caterpillar. There are a few that look similar to that and yours looks more like a cut worm than anything, from the picture.

The last image is of a caterpillar (Sphinx moth) pupa ...perhaps that of your hornworm. I could tell you more about it if I could see a better picture. You can touch it....it won't bite, but it might wriggle a little bit. :-)

This post was edited by rhizo_1 on Sat, Jun 15, 13 at 19:16

I've read that Neem Oil is safe to use if it is applied following the directions?

Does it count if it rains almost everyday? Im assuming the oil washes off of the plant during the rain, if so, can I apply it again after the rain? Or wait the appropriate amount of time?

The last is a moth pupa... I found a few of the SVB in my soil when I was cultivating and weeding before building raised beds.

I totally agree with Susan -- I really think you can just relax and leave the bugs alone. They don't seem to be doing much damage at all. I've got what you have, and plenty of them, and they never cause any problems.

Now tomato horn worms are a different story, and your experience with them may be why you're up in arms about these recent sightings. Tomato hornworms are such ugly ravenous creatures that they must be stopped or you will lose your entire crop. I've never had anything come close to the damage they do, and I believe they should all be fed to hungry chickens. I doubt the last photo is a pre-tomato hornworm because I always have those, and have only seem the t. hornworms once (knocking on wood.)

I've never used pesticides, so I don't know about the safety of neem oil. But it seems that folks here often talk about pesticides killing beneficials and upsetting the balance in your garden.

Trusting the web of life sounds very good--probably a challenge, but you can keep checking every day, pull off known bad guys and bad guy eggs each day, and keep taking deep breaths. (of your clean, pesticide-free air.)

At this point, I am just angry as no other! I find a new type of pest everyday in my garden, and I never had this much trouble last year.

That's the problem. Your anger and over-reacting to bugs in the garden. How many posts now is this about a bug in your garden?

Relax. Gardens all full of bugs. It is a normal and needed part of gardening and 95% or beneficials or neutrals. A bug free garden would be a sterile non-productive garden.

None of the things you have found are hurting anything so quit worrying so much about them. Your pepper plant leaf has some scale and has nothing to do with any beetle and isn't hurting anything. If it bothers you so much just remove the leaf.

The cut worm, while a mild threat to a small young seedling, poses no threat except to eat a few leaf edges before he pupates. His damage if any is minor.

The soil pupae will become a moth of some kind. Is it hurting anything laying there in the soil? No. Kill it if you wish or ignore it. Either way it is no big deal.

I've read that Neem Oil is safe to use if it is applied following the directions?

Safe for what? You want to spray Neem oil because of these finds? First it wouldn't work on any of them except maybe the scale but what else will be killed by spraying it?

The problem in your garden is not the bugs, it is your attitude toward them and while you can't keep all the bugs out of the garden you can keep yourself from getting so upset about them.

Dave

Newatthis: What others are telling you is true. For a while, I was the same way. Now, I only use a couple of pesticides sparingly. Neem oil is one, but only when I have my yearly whitefly epidemic. For caterpillars, use BT. It's very "target" specific and probably the safest pesticide made.

Google "Integrated Pest Management."

Kevin

Perhaps the supermodel analogy will help? Just like a woman does not need to look like a supermodel to be beautiful, your garden plants do not need to be pristine in order to be good producers. Free your mind from the shackles of advertising! ;)

There really are a small number of pests that are common and damaging. And even the ones that are damaging need to show up in large numbers to be worth getting upset about. You will be exhausted in short time if you allow yourself to get upset at every hole you find in a leaf (especially since not all holes are caused by bugs) and every insect you see. Take it more like the justice system- the insects are innocent until proven guilty. Which means catching one in the act before deciding it is a problem. This will also save you a lot of money.

I do not view bugs as nasty, dirty little things, but more fondly. They are amazing little things, very much alive and following their own purposes. Some are incredibly beautiful, and all of them are amazing. That last picture you have is a moth coccoon (technically a pupa). You can actually see the transition from caterpillar to winged insect in those, it is very cool. I do get rid of insect pests on my plants, but not from an emotional, angry place. Like with weeds, I do it because it must be done to get the plants to bear food for me. I'm not saying you need to think fondly on insects like me, I'm just putting out my way of thinking because it is different. Cheers!

Newatthis22 - it's hard when we are new at something and trying to learn as we go. The best thing to do is educate yourself on the bug world - what is beneficial and what could do harm. Periodic inspection of your plants is good practice - especially for organic growers - we become the insecticide by removing what we see by hand. You won't get everything and as susanzone5 said, it's all a part of the biology of living things. Beneficials depend on the not-so-beneficials for food.

Deep breath - remove what you can - enjoy your garden.