Assassin Bug
Scientific Name: Reduviidae
Assassin bugs are a common garden insect that are beneficial to your garden!
How to identify:
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Mid-sized insect, common colourations include brown, green and red/black.
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Typically have a flat back, sometimes the sides can be slightly elevated
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Long, gangly legs and long antennae.
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Short, stout beak that curves back towards its body.
Benefits:
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Assassin bugs are speedy, aggressive and have an appetite for just about anything in your garden.
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They pierce their victim with a daggerlike mouthpart, and then inject its prey with a lethal toxin.
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They will consume almost any pest in your garden including aphids, japanese beetles, and leafhoppers.
How to keep your garden assassin bug friendly:
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The like small flowers such as Queen Anne’s lace, oleander, daisies, goldenrod, fennel, and dill.
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They also like to live in mulch.
How this relates to conservation:
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If insecticides are too frequently used on garden pests, the food source for assassin bugs is being reduced which will in turn diminish their population. Diminished assassin bug populations could result in an increase in pests that attack food crops and forest plants required for ecosystem and human service. Therefore, it is important to promote the population of predators in your garden, which will naturally get rid of your garden pests.
Assassin bugs are killers on the move! Do not try to grab them as they can bite us.
