I’m interested in invertebrates and invertebrate conservation, so I manage my garden to support a population of beneficial insects. Today while doing some much-needed garden maintenance I saw no pest species except crickets (so I thought anyway) but to my pleasure I did find these guys…

This individual was about 2 inches long and was mostly a mottled light brown color. The picture shows it on the edge of a paper bag that I was using to collect seeds.

When I took this picture I was excited because I thought this was an Assassin Bug, but after looking online to try to identify which kind, it’s seems more likely that it’s a Leaf-Footed Bug. If that’s the case it sucks plant juices and it doesn’t prey on other insects like the Assassin Bug would do, so it’s NOT good to have in the garden. But I only saw one so it’s not a big deal.

I’m so excited, my Swamp Milkweed is being used a host plant for Monarchs! I’ve been seeing a lot of Monarchs in the garden for the last month or so. I’m so happy to be not only helping feed them with flower nectar but providing them habitat for their larvae. I have Common Milkweed started in two other parts of the garden and I’m going to spread the Swamp Milkweed seed around this fall to try to grow more.