My soft spot for leaf-footed bugs

It's been awhile since bugs have mounted any sort of serious challenge, but I think our detente has come to an end. All of this recent rain is good for the plants, of course. Apparently, it's also good for bugs. 

A leaf-footed bug, still as stylish as ever

I've seen a couple of adult leaf-footed bugs around the yard lately. Fortunately, none have been on any of my vegetable plants so far. Since it seems as though they learned their lesson as nymphs and stay off my tomatoes, I let them be for now. 

As adults they've lost their youthful exuberance for bright colors. I think it's nice to see an insect that recognizes the benefit of aging gracefully and modifies its style accordingly. The mostly black exoskeleton with subtle tangerine accents is far more age appropriate than the nymphs' bolder color palette. And, the tailoring of that abdomen with the flared rear leg joints really strikes an elegant silhouette.

I wish I could say that I appreciate all pests as much as I do the leaf-footed bugs. This morning, as I sipped my tequila cran-rise while making my morning rounds, I noticed that something is ravaging my kale, which has really managed to hang in there admirably through some unseasonably hot weather. For whatever reason, caterpillars have never bothered the kale until now. 

Does this caterpillar look fat to you? It is.

I spent an inordinant amount of time picking a thousand caterpillars off the kale and feeding them to Juanita and Patrick. Pearl was busy laying the egg that will be difference between Trav and I cooking dinner tonight rather than going out to eat.

Speaking of eggs, while de-caterpillaring my kale, I couldn't help but notice all of strange little mushy balls caught in every nook and cranny of the leaves. The Brussels sprout leaves where also covered. I'm not positive, but it seems likely that these are caterpillar eggs. 

How does one deal with billions of caterpillar eggs? The only way I could imagine was to give them the aphid treatment and spray them off with the hose. We'll see if that works. I doubt it will kill the eggs. My thinking is that if the eggs don't hatch on leaves for the caterpillar hatchlings to start eating right away, they will die. Let's hope.

Caterpillar eggs on a Brussels sprout leaf.