Friend or foe? What are these things?

rexpop

Member
Hi everyone! I'm new to this and trying it this year as a fun hobby. I like to look at the plants every couple of days to see what's changed and what I can learn about this beautiful plant.

This morning I found these guys. I took pictures that aren't great but hopefully good enough for someone who may be familiar. What are they? They're a little scary looking, which I'm hoping is a good thing (scary for the real problem bugs). They're hanging out on top.

Anyone have any idea?

edit: pics are pretty zoomed in. They look a lot bigger in the pictures than they actually are. They're about the size of a quarter or smaller.

1.jpg 2.jpg
 

mwine87

Well-Known Member
While spiders are our friends, those are not spiders. I would kill them. I see them once and a while, id always pick them off. I think they are a kind of cricket/grass hopper. Kill them, spray with BT and Neem Oil alternatly. My 2¢.
 

rexpop

Member
Thanks for the input guys.

I went outside and looked again just now (it's much warmer) and they're gone. There's no damage to the leaves up where they were. I have very minor leaf damage on the plant from grasshoppers that I've seen once in a while but there aren't enough of them for me to worry (yet). Hopefully that won't come back to bite me later.

edit: Also FWIW the bugs did look very spidery to me, just not like any spider I'd seen before. Like a scary exotic spider/mantis hybrid.
 
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topcat

Well-Known Member
One of the best things of growing outdoors is nature's predators. There are only a handful of creatures that are detrimental to cannabis and those have been identified. The rest, I just let them be. Even leaf miners, they do little to the plant and wasps are beneficial, they eat lots of eggs and insects we can't see easily.
My biggest foes are fungus and caterpillars, in that order. Caterpillars won't destroy my garden in a day but fungus could. I'm lucky that I don't get mites here...yet. What you get rid of, might be the very thing you wish you had, later on. Work with nature and don't be an adversary. Observe and don't overthink it. Too many people rely on soil "recipes" and NPK nutrient numbers. I was once in that crowd, too.
 

sno capz

Well-Known Member
Appears to be some kind of mantis... Which is good for a garden... They'll eat the pests that you don't want hanging around
 

cbtbudz

Well-Known Member
Katydid? If so kill it! Kinda like grasshopper but not as strong of legs. They make sound too kind of like crickets or grasshopper.
 

dirtpower

Well-Known Member
Looks like an assassin bug from the pic I would need to see a front shot to confirm...if it is....they are your friends...very good friends.
 

dirtpower

Well-Known Member
I stand corrected, I just looked at the pics again and this time saw the back legs...so not an Assassin bug.
 
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