Hi there
We had such a problem with stink bugs. I found one "huge"stink bug in my tomatoes and I killed it but then my sister in law an I wonder if it was a stink bug or an assassin bug :-( only difference was in size. Had the marble back like the pests that have been poking our tomatoes. Organiide worked well. We learned too to plant closer by sergom(?) and all the bad bugs goes to that plant then u spray it and not spray the veggies.

http://bigthicketcritters.com/StinkAssasBug.html

Enjoy.

I've heard that diatomaceous Earth works well. There is this awesome technique (which I have not yet tried, but is being promoted by a garden expert), where you moisten the plants (maybe mist them?), and then blow a small pile of the DE at the plants with a leaf blower. The DE coats the plants uniformly. For my scale, I figure a handful of DE held in front of a vent line from a shop vac will work. I'm looking forward to trying this next year.

You can differentiate between the Stinkbug nymphs and the Assassin Bug nymphs by the tail end. I have a little blurb that helps me: "Bad Black Bump" which is what the Stinkbug nymphs sport on their butt tips when they are smallish and congregating like little orange ants with long black legs.

The clue is "congregate". Stinkbugs are groupies, and usually appear as a whole mass of them together, usually on top of your best tomato...

Assassin Bugs, true to their name, are singular and solitary. You will usually encounter them one at a time, or, in my case, if you have a "herd" of them in your milkweed, you will see them down there with adequate space between themselves, and being rather territorial...

I consider my "herd" of Assassins to be Allies. They patrol the grass and milkweed and keep EVERYTHING from crawling up to my veggie plants. The downside is that they are afraid of nothing, and will kill EVERYTHING in their path, so this means they do take out some of your beneficial bugs (bennies) as well. However, it's a trade-off, 'cause the bennies might relocate to the other side of your yard and be very safe and happy...

Linda

When visiting the pomegranates, I look for a 'herd' of small, orange leaf-footed hopper babies all clustered together on one fruit. I soak them down with Windex using the misting setting on a 1 quart spray bottle. They all die in seconds. I can use a second quart spray bottle filled with water to rinse off the Windex. When I see the mid-sized or large leaf-footed hoppers on the fruit, I use the same Windex but with the squirt setting so as to hit them from a distance before they take off. The older bugs die slower than the orange babies after they get saturated with the Windex.