I was outside in the yard several days ago taking photos of some wild rose vines leafing out. After reviewing my photos I noticed a strange and colorful tiny bug in one of the photos.
I decided to go back out to the yard to see if I could find the bug again and, possibly, get some better photos of it. This is the first one that I actually got of it so you can see why I would want a better photo to show off.
It was great also when I went back out the second time as the sun was now shining on the wild rose vine and I located the colorful little bug. I snapped a few photos and I was happy to also see some shadows on my photos of the bug and the leaves. I then proceeded to the computer to figure out what kind of bug it was. After putting in several descriptions and viewing way too many photos, I found out that it is a Candy-striped leafhopper aka Red-banded leafhopper (has other aka's as well).
Okay, now I know what it is so I needed to know is it a good bug or a bad bug. Sadly, this pretty little bug is a bad bug. It sucks the sap out of a host plant and can cause a lot of damage to it. I'm not too concerned though as I do have a lot of birds in the yard and that is one of their biggest predators along with spiders which I've seen in the yard as well. I still plan on keeping an eye open to make sure they don't start showing up in droves and don't seriously hurt any of the plants cause if I see more than a few of these little buggers out there then I may have to start helping the birds out with the Candy-striped Leafhopper...pretty or not! 🤨
Thank you @melinda010100 for #shadowhunters!!
