The world is filled with small black beetles of all manners and sorts. Can you post a good close-up picture?

Looks like the pretty nymph of the predatory stink bug. These are the kinds of insects that we want in our garden.

Paula, Of course it is tempting. Quick fixes always are. However, it is better overall to go with whatever hurts the beneficial insects the least...and I know that you know that. : ) Having said that, I would defend to the death anyone's right to use the pesticide of their choice, whether it is organic or synthetic in nature. Different strokes for different folks, and all that. There are times when even the most ardent organic or mostly-organic gardener may find their back against the wall and decide to use a broad-spectrum chemical pesticide in order to save their plants and their crops. That's doubly true during extended drought. It is hard enough to keep a garden productive in a regular year with a regular pest load. Doing so in a very dry year which also is a year with generally high (in some cases, astronomically high), pest levels...well, it can be incredibly hard and sometimes impossibly hard. So, if someone feels the need to use Sevin or Malathion or whatever, I think they should do so after carefully weighing the risks, and I hope that no one here would make them feel like using a chemical solution was wrong or was a mistake or whatever. I'm always going to prefer to garden as organically I as possibly can because that fits in with my desire to garden in a manner that is as sustainable as possible. However, if I felt like the only way I could save my garden from some sort of a major pest was by spraying it with a broad-spectrum pesticide, I just might make the decision to do so. Does that mean my philosophy has changed? No. It just means I find myself dealing with a pest for which organics do not offer a good solution. You have no idea how much I have struggled this year with the idea that I could buy a bottle of bifenthrin or something "just this once" and spray it and wipe out the pests. What keeps me from doing it? The feeling I would be endangering pollinators and beneficials, for one. Still, if I felt I had to do it or risk losing the garden's harvest, I would do it. I also would not feel guilty afterwards. Even though I prefer to raise our veggies, fruits, herbs and flowers without the use of synthetic chemicals, I certainly don't buy only organic food at the grocery store. So, is it logical to hold my home-grown food to a higher standard 100% of the time? No. Sometimes I think I expect too much from myself in that respect. If I buy conventionally-grown strawberries at the grocery store, it is possible that maybe they were sprayed with various fungicides and pesticides multiple times during the life of the plant. So, even if mine were sprayed once with a chemical pesticide or fungicide, wouldn't mine still be much healthier than those raised conventionally? I don't think anyone here should have to feel bad about doing what they have to do to save their garden or a specific crop, or as far as that goes, to save their sanity. If last summer's weather/climate, followed by this summer's weather/climate, is not enough to drive all of us stark raving mad from the frustration of trying to keep our landscapes and gardens pretty and productive, then what would it take? Dawn

I've never had ambush bugs in my garden, but have the related bee assassin bugs (Apiomerus crassipes) and I deal with them merely by watching for them and snipping them in half with my garden scissors when I see them. As with any predatory insect, each individual gardener must make their choices based on their goals for their garden's ecosystem. One of my goals as a gardener is to be welcoming to bees and other pollinators. While assassin bugs and other predatory insects generally are welcome in my garden, I don't tolerate the presence of bee assassin bugs and wouldn't tolerate the ambush bugs either. While both will feed on other insects and not solely on bees, I like having the bees in the garden so tend to kill pests that prey on them. There is no pesticide you could use to kill the ambush bugs that would not harm other desirable insects including the bees.