Hi all,
I'm in North Florida...vegtable garden and I have seen many small 3/16" -
1/4" Orange colored bugs with 6 black legs. They look *very* much like a big
ant...you know with the big tail end (butt?) but it's not a ant (or I dont
think it is) I found a bunch on my squash plant blooms before they opened,
I'm seeing them on small watermelon plants as well. They could have a tiny
black dot on the top of there "Butts" but it's hard to tell with out a good
glass. They are quite colorful. Brilliant orange with black legs. They dont
move very fast and so far I have seen no appaerant damage...so far.

Any ideas what they are? Are they good...or bad? I tried to I.D. them with
resources on the internet but couldnt find anything that I could truely
say.."Thats it" !

Dave...Down in Florida

"I asked the Wizard for a heart, he said I needed a brain...so I set his
curtain on fire"

D.R.

Have you tried google's image search engine? I tried searching on
"garden pests" and came up with lots of pictures. One of these was to
Texas A&M University. They're right up the road from me.

http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/b-1300.html

Let us know what your critter turns out to be.

V

Google Search on "orange bug black legs looks like ant" returned this:
http://www.geocities.com/pchew_brisbane/Buglife.htm

Cotton Plant Bug. It even describes them as "slow movers" I'm not sure
if they are the exact same bug since the website is Australian, but
they seem to fit your description.

Maybe you can find what you/re looking for @
http://www.forestryimages.org/browse...s.cfm?aut=2641

Select 'View Thumbnails' to see all pix at once. 'All' option not
recommended for dial-up.

--
TQ


"D.Reid" wrote in message
...
Hi all,
I'm in North Florida...vegtable garden and I have seen many small 3/16" -
1/4" Orange colored bugs with 6 black legs. They look *very* much like a
big
ant...you know with the big tail end (butt?) but it's not a ant (or I dont
think it is) I found a bunch on my squash plant blooms before they opened,
I'm seeing them on small watermelon plants as well. They could have a tiny
black dot on the top of there "Butts" but it's hard to tell with out a
good
glass. They are quite colorful. Brilliant orange with black legs. They
dont
move very fast and so far I have seen no appaerant damage...so far.

Any ideas what they are? Are they good...or bad? I tried to I.D. them with
resources on the internet but couldnt find anything that I could truely
say.."Thats it" !

Dave...Down in Florida

"I asked the Wizard for a heart, he said I needed a brain...so I set his
curtain on fire"

"D.Reid" wrote:
I'm in North Florida...vegtable garden and I have seen many
small 3/16" - 1/4" Orange colored bugs with 6 black legs.

Might be a lady bug in the pre-lady bug stage?

I have quite a few lady bugs in this stage right now. They start
off as little green grubs then grow bigger and bigger. When they
hit the 2mm size (1/8") they start to turn orange or brown or
black. When they're 1/4" in size (8 to 10mm) the black spots
become more visible on a larger shelled orange body.

They were covering a cowpea a couple weeks and I wasn't
sure what they were at that time, so I hosed down the cowpea
with water and they all disappeared. I noticed them on a blooming
mustard and I started to wash them off (they were still very
small critters greenish tannish in color). However the plant
didn't appear damaged. So I left the rest alone. Today I noted
two of the bugs were quite large (didn't count the number of
legs though), orange in color and spotted (1/4" and bigger).

Hope this helps.

Jim Carlock
Post replies to the group.
--
North Carolina Swimming Pool Builder
http://www.aquaticcreationsnc.com/

I'm not sure but it sounds like it might be a cow ant. Beneficial to a
garden because they eat other bugs. Think ground wasp. So you don't want
to touch it if it is a cow ant.


If it is a cow ant, she's right, the stings are AWFUL! The only thing
is, the cow ants I remember were super fast movers, and he describes it
as slow. I hope the OP posts back!