The pictures of leaf hoppers look like a different shape than my bugs. Mine are quite round. I probably gave the wrong impression when I compared them to mini grasshoppers. Also, I'm noticing that some are brown. Also, when I say they hop, I would say it is like those shooter weeds that shoot seeds when you touch them - the bugs go flying about that far.

This is the first I've seen of them so I'm not sure what they look like later in life. So, jean001a, are these harmful to the plants? Picture of the rhubarb is attached. I've looked it all over for slugs, cats and beetles and haven't found anything right on the plant. I thought it was slugs at first so I tried the beer can trick (my grandma used to have the same issues with rhubarb way back when) but when I went out to put the can down I saw chomps on higher leaves. Let me know what you think :)

This year, instead of hand removing the red aphids from my Heliopsis (false sunflower) early on, I left them thinking they didn't do much damage. Wrong! Within a few weeks they were covering the top third to half of every stalk (I have nine plants.) And soon it was clear that they were weakening the plants, some badly. I stared spraying with need and insecticidal soap. They would seem to help at first, but next day they'd be totally back. I repeated, but the same thing. Then I started hosing them with a jet stream. At first it seemed like the same situation -- maybe 80% would get sprayed off, but next day most would be back. But then I started doing it every day. I've been doing it every day for about a week or ten days now. The population is definitely decreasing. I cannot undo the damage they've done -- tiny flowers, shiny sap on many leaves, some limp leaves -- but I'm hoping I can halt them, cut back the worst parts, and they will make some new leaves and flowers. The worst affected plants, I'm not sure about. But I think I'm getting somewhere with the others. Next year: I will preemptively spray with neem. IF they still appear, I will get them off by hand (gloved hand as I'm wimpy about squishing them with bare hands and having my hands turn that rusty blood red!) pronto. I was complacent about them this year because I'd heard an interview with a very experienced rose gardener who does nothing about aphids, says they are there for three weeks and do no damage. I thought, well, these probably do little or no damage too. So wrong! I hope to report back next season.

Susan, Eating the honeybees? Oh, that is just awful. I do agree that it is important to protect the honeybees from the Assassin Bugs. Like George, I sometimes move them to places where I want them. That doesn't mean the bugs will stay where I put them, but I do think it helps to redirect their attention sometimes. Unfortunately, predatory insects are going to put themselves where they can find something to prey upon. George, I love Arbico. You can find almost any beneficial insect there that you might need. Unfortunately, at our house, the grasshoppers outnumber the Assassin bugs by probably 100 to 1. It seems like our hopper population is soaring since it rained, so we probably have an all-you-can-eat grasshopper buffet for the Assassin bugs. The birds here have been eating so many grasshoppers that they almost look too fat to fly, but we still have huge numbers of hoppers. I think the grasshopper population in most years is just about the worst thing about gardening in a rural area with lots of open rangeland. Dawn