It's hard to tell with my bad eyes but aphids will have 2 little tube-like structures extending from the behind and will excrete a sticky substance called honeydue. BE bugs are classified as true-bugs and no not have chewing mouthparts. True-bugs feed by piercing-sucking mouthparts and will feed on either blood, plants or other insects depending on the True-bug species. BE feed on the leaves of the male Boxelder and Silver Maple trees but hardly cause enough damage for concern.

Scroll down a bit to see the nymphal stages of the BE bug..

Vera

Here is a link that might be useful: Pestrite

It's not your eyes, Vera! ;-)

Kathy, do some quick googling so that you can be certain what an aphid looks like. There are other insects that can easily be confused with BE nymphs, but none that 'really' look like aphids, other than aphids.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1165687}}

Thanks, Vera and Rhizo,

I didn't see any ants (usually a sign of aphids), and we're loaded with box elder bugs this year, so I was hoping....looks like it's time to get out the guns.

Kathy