This page is the home of the bugs I've found on my plants.

All of the pictures were taken at 1600x1200 and 16bit color. The pictures on the page have been reduced by 1/3 and linked to the full sized picture which is a much bigger download (~400KB). I've provided them for people with faster connections or those that are trying to help me identify things of note.

	I've had an aphid problem on my pepper plants so I started trying to run them off by squashing them, spraying them with garlic water, and shaking them off the plants every evening. On the second day that the aphids were almost non-existant I found this little guy on one of my plants. Is he friend or foe?
	Another angle.
	Another angle.
	Another angle.
	Another angle.
	There are two of these mystery "maggots" in tehe picture and they both just started eating an aphid. One on the leave on the right and one towards the left on a bud. I played waiter to both maggots by bringing an aphid to them as a test.
	The same two "maggots" from a different angle. The white spot on at the end of the upper "maggot" is the aphid which was green until mealtime. The "maggot" on the bud is reaching out and has an aphid by the head that was climbing from a stem to the bud.
	Here you can really see the "maggot" giving the aphid a kiss of death. When the aphid got grabbed it tried to pull away for a second, but it was too late. :)
	When I started looking at my plants again tonight I didn't see the bug I saw last night but I saw more of these "maggots" one of which I squashed last night. I squashed two of them for fear they might bore into my chillis and then I noticed this scene. One of the maggots had a white thing near it. I was checking to see if it was building a cocoon or something and realized it was finnishing its meal. The white is an aphid skeleton. Shortly after I snapped this pic the "maggot" moved on to look for the next course.
	I appear to have several assassin bugs wandering around on my plants. They seem to be doing their job well because I have no aphid problems anymore. They just showed up one day and although the aphids were gone before I noticed the assassins, I haven't seen a single aphid since. There must be something for them to eat since they're hanging around.
	Another assassin bug. The mouth tube that they use to kill other bugs is so thin its hard to see even in person. They also fly away to another leave if you get too close, but they don't go too far.
	One day after a rainshower I was out inspecting my garden and found two killers in a tender moment. I guess the rain kept their victims in hiding so they found a way to kill the time. Soon I hope to have many more little assassin bugs running around killing any aphids or other pests that threaten my garden.
	Side angle of the above.
	An ugly and mean looking bug "hiding" on the stem of one of my zuk plants. Didn't seem to be doing harm and with a mug like that I suspect it was there waiting to eat some other bug.
	A closeup of an ugly and mean looking insect on the stem of my zuk plant.
	While I was looking at my bell and cayenne plants this green housefly landed so I lined up the shot and snapped the picture. After the flash he flew away and when I looked at the picture I was amazed at the delay between flash and shutter speed and the speed of the fly's central nervous system. When I snapped the picture the fly was sitting on the leave cleaning its legs.
	A small jumping spider I found running up the wall when I dropped something in my mulching trough.
	Oct. 21, 2003: One of the catepillars I found eating the leaves on my overwintering pepper plants in the basement.
	Oct. 21, 2003: Muncher number 2.
	Oct. 21, 2003: ... and the third culprit.
	Oct. 21, 2003: All three together. Not sure what kind they are but they have been sentenced to execution.
	Oct. 29, 2003: This little bugger is a buddy of the other ones above but must have figured that something ate them. He decided if he ate some of my Red Savina Habenero pods he would become a super fire worm that no one would dare try to eat.
	Oct. 29, 2003:
	Oct. 29, 2003:
	Oct. 29, 2003:
	Oct. 29, 2003:
	Oct. 29, 2003: Quaranteened in a cup for observation the criminal exploded. The cause of his detonation may be attributable to several factors. A small suicide device designed to kill any predators, spontaneous combustion from eating too much of his body weight worth of the world's hottest pepper, or ...
	Oct. 29, 2003: ... being subjected to 1000W of microwave radiation for a minute. >:)