{"id":133,"date":"2017-01-25T12:04:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T12:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/blog\/?p=133"},"modified":"2017-01-25T12:04:15","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T12:04:15","slug":"milkweed-assassin-bug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/learn\/milkweed-assassin-bug\/","title":{"rendered":"Milkweed Assassin Bug"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_134\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-134\" style=\"width: 297px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-134 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Zelus_longipes-e1635883951496-297x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"297\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-134\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Milkweed Assassin Bug, <\/em><strong>Zelus longipes<\/strong><em> on a <strong>Bidens alba<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>What is this bright little red and black bug?\u00a0 The assassin bug, <em>Zelus longipes<\/em>.\u00a0 By its name you can probably guess that this is an insect that eats other insects.\u00a0 Thus, the name assassin.\u00a0 Predatory insects are very beneficial in the garden because they will usually munch on other insects such as aphids and ants that are not as welcome.\u00a0 I almost always see these little red beauties on my <em>Bidens alba.\u00a0 <\/em>It is so prevalent on the plant that I sometimes call the <em>Bidens<\/em> the Assassin host daisy.\u00a0 I could easily guess that this nimble creature was a hunter because it lives by itself, I never see it in a group of other <em>Zelus longipes, <\/em>vegetarian bugs will usually be surrounded by a whole bunch of their buddies.\u00a0 It is also very quick, nimble, and aware.\u00a0 When detecting my shadow it will instantaneously hide behind a branch. \u00a0Ants don\u2019t care about shadows, they keep marching.\u00a0 If you see one of these pretty little bugs, let it be, and be glad that you use Diatomite to control your ants so that the beautiful and helpful <em>Zelus longipes <\/em>can thrive in your garden.<\/p>\n<p>~Lisa<\/p>\n<p>ps: this post is famous in the future, check this out: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/31\/the-curious-case-of-bidens-alba\/\">The Curious Case of Bidens Alba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is this bright little red and black bug?\u00a0 The assassin bug, Zelus longipes.\u00a0 By its name you can probably guess that this is an insect that eats other insects.\u00a0 Thus, the name assassin.\u00a0 Predatory insects are very beneficial in the garden because they will usually munch on other insects such as aphids and ants [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-early"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okragardensupply.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}