3rd picture is an aphid. Squish it.

borderokie, Unfortunately for those of us who try to raise our gardens as pesticide-free as possible, the alternate methods that we employ instead of spraying pesticides are, indeed, extremely time-consuming. What I have found is that if I can manage to find the time to hand-pick and destroy the beetles when the outbreak first begins, then I will have little to no trouble with them after that. Thus, I might have spent a ridiculous amount of time over the course of a few days hand-picking and drowning the beetles, but I haven't found many since then--maybe 3 or 4. What I have noticed the last few days is that the spined soldier bugs have shown up and now are sitting on top of the potato leaves. They will provide CPB control for me for the remainder of the summer, so my work is done. An alternate method of doing this if your garden doesn't have a naturally-occurring population of spined soldier bugs is to buy some from an insectary and release them. We also have two turtles crawling around in the garden who like to eat CPBs when they can find them, but the turtles are more effective when the plants are smaller and the beetles are down low within their reach. With all the recent rainfall, the potato plants are very tall now and the turtles cannot reach the bugs that are higher up on the plants. For a long time, we could use Colorado Potato Beater's old formulation (and other products with the same active ingredient), which at the time contained a bioinsecticide called Bacillus thuringiensis 'san diego' or 'tenibrionsis'. Unfortunately, those products have become harder to find. Bonide, which makes and sells Colorado Potato Beater changed their product's formulation from the Bt strains to Spinosad. I assume they did this because repeated spraying of the Bt product was leading to Bt-resistant CPBs. History has shown that CPBs develop resistance to or tolerance of commonly-used insecticides so you have to rotate the products you use in order to prevent that from occurring, or to at least slow it down. You still might be able to find one of the Bt products that target CPBs at a farm store or someplace with a great selection of organic pesticides, but all the stores here near me merely carry Bonide's spinosad product. Be sure you find the particular strain of Bt that targets CPBs, because there are other strains available that target other insects, like Bt 'kurstaki' for caterpillars or Bt 'israelensis' for mosquito larvaw. Pyrethrin sprays often work on CPBs too, but they are more toxic to other life forms and I don't want to use them in my garden, especially the formulations that contain PBO. We have cats that spend a lot of their time in the garden with me and pyrethrins can cause nervous system disorders in cats, so I don't use pyrethrins often, and generally only as a last resort. Sometimes I'll spray Take-down Spray directly on a pest, like blister beetles, in the garden, but not when the cats are in the garden with me, and never on a plant the cats adore like catmint, catnip or cat grass. Larry, You could try the net and see if it works. CPBs are smart and do seem to 'dive' off the plants when they see us reaching for them. To get around that, i hold the bowl of soapy water under the leaf with my left hand and then reach for the CPB with my right hand. If the CPB sees my hand approaching and attempts to jump or fall off the leave to get away, it falls right into the bowl of soapy water. Isn't that helpful? I appreciate that those CPBs put themselves right into the bowl of soapy water for me. Dawn

looks like a katydid ;-) ... some sort of locust ?? ... not sure what the correct name is but we used to be fascinated with them as kids, finding their skeletons attached to trees every summer ...

A treatment for aphids, and don't use dishwashing detergent. The recipe isn't new, but a lot of people have damaged their plants by using the wrong soap. I found several bars of Ivory Soap in the linen closet. They're old, and nobody likes them because they leave a scum on everything. I used a potato peeler to shave enough of the soap bar into warm water to make it cloudy -- it shaves off in tiny white granules, maybe because it's so old. Note: Ivory bar soap does have fragrance added, but only a very small amount. So use with care. Ivory Claims - The soap that floats. - 99.44% pure. - Simple. Naturally clean. - Leaves skin feeling naturally clean. - Contains no dyes or heavy perfumes or lotions. Ingredients Sodium tallowate, sodium cocoate or sodium palm kernelate, water, sodium chloride, sodium silicate, magnesium sulfate, and fragrance. Here are the directions: To prepare this soap spray you'll need the following ingredients: Pure, white soap Use our Original Oatmeal Soap or a store brand like Ivory. Make sure the soap has no dyes or fragrances since they can damage plant foliage. Also DO NOT use detergents such as liquid dish soap. Unlike soap which is organic, detergents are chemical cleaners and are toxic to most plants. Light Vegetable Oil Canola, corn, and safflower are all good examples of a light vegetable oil. It's important to make sure that it's a light vegetable oil, and not a heavy one such as peanut to ensure that the oil evaporates from the plant's leaves before they're smothered. Water Plain old tap water will do just fine. Spray Bottle or Garden Sprayer To apply the soap spray. Making the soap spray Drop the bar of white soap into a container such as a small bowl and add two cups of water. Allow the soap to sit in the water overnight or until enough of the soap has dissolved to make the water white and cloudy. Once enough soap has dissolved, remove the soap bar from the water and pour the soap solution into your spray bottle or garden sprayer. Add 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, seal the sprayer and shake well. Application You can use the soap spray on all types of indoor or outdoor plants, including vegetables. Spray the infested plant well enough to thoroughly wet the leaf, making sure to get both the top and the bottom. For light infestations a single application should be enough. For heavier infestations (especially on outdoor plants and trees), apply the soap spray every day for three days. Then once a week to control re-infestations. How does the soap spray work? Soft-bodied insects such as aphids breath through openings in the sides of their body. Pure white soap contains large molecules of fatty acids and glycerin that will clog those openings and essentially suffocate the pest. The vegetable oil is used as a sticking agent that allows more of the spray to stay on the leaf without dripping off. The soap spray that does drip off decomposes in the soil without affecting the plant. The spray that remains on the leaf evaporates after a day or two. Super strength spray For tougher insects such as cucumber beetles, Colorado beetles, various caterpillars, and similar pests, you can make a super-strength version of this spray by adding ground hot chili peppers. The heat of the peppers repels most chewing insects. (Note, however, that this spray can burn the leaves of some tender plants. Make sure to test it on a small area before dousing the entire plant.) Here is a link that might be useful: Homemade Insecticidal Soap for Aphid Control