Another colorful bug

A few days ago Travis convinced me to spare the five or six little orange bugs with black legs that I saw loafing on one of the tomatoes. They didn't look like they were making trouble, and that vivid red-orange is very on trend for this spring. How could you not love the contrast with those stark black legs and antennae? As it turns out they are leaf-footed bug nymphs, which may sound cute, maybe even magical, but they are in fact, sucking the life force out of my most mature tomato to date. Those five or six became 10-15 yesterday, and I hunted down each one with my thumb and forefinger. So, I was shocked this morning to find, not only leaf-footed bug nymphs on said tomato, but many more leaf-footed bug nymphs expanding their territory beyond the tomato fruit itself. Keep in mind they are little camera shy and all ran to the opposite side of the tomato or branch whenever I tried to take their photo. Maybe these nymphs really are magical and two more take the place of every one killed. We'll see. I've added nymph crushing to my morning routine of caterpillar inspection, removal, and destruction by chicken.