Is it bad for my garden?

wow, great photos. Until I looked closer, I assumed they would be black aphids, but in that close-up pic they do look a little like crickets -- however, they don't look like any of the images I found when I searched google for baby crickets. Therefore, I'm not convinced that they are crickets... I don't see antennae. Do they have larger/stronger back jumping legs? (my own terminology. lol!)

ETA: could they be something like a squash bug nymph? Where are you located?

I don't see any holes in the lettuce, so I'd say they're not harmful to your lettuce. I'd just take a hose and spray them off with water.

They ARE aphids! And yes, they can be very harmful to your plants, especially the young starts. You won't see any holes because they are a sucking insect, not one that chews.

They can multiply extremely rapidly so get rid of them ASAP. If you are not squeamish (and it's hard to be a successful gardener if you are), you can just squish them with your fingers. Otherwise, hosing down with a strong stream of water is effective as is insecticidal soap or neem oil, both of which are natural controls and safe to use on food crops.

It's barely let me type anything

I did a google image search for aphids, and there are some that are black, but from what I saw, their body was a totally different shape. I'm not convinced they're baby crickets, either! The pics that Mike Kelly posted look like they have a hard skeleton, where aphids are soft..???

Sucking insects like aphids do leave damage on the leaves, and with that many I'd expect to see many tiny holes in the foliage. I don't know....

This is cool....you can send the pic to Cornell and they'll I.D. it for you! Please let us know when you find out.

http://idl.entomology.cornell.edu/

There are thousands of different species of aphids and not all look alike. Magnified, many of them look more like a weevil or some other insect.

And they never leave holes! Their sucking mouth parts are far too small to incur that sort of visible damage. Typically it will show as a contortion or stunting of the foliage from the fluids in the plant tissue being sucked out.

thanks

I'll let you guys know

100% aphids.

Agreed, aphids.

The lower pic appears to show a smaller/younger? version of the "bug" near the bottom of the pic which is greenish in color and looks more like a typical aphid.

We use to get these all over an arbor vine at our old house. They are aphids.