Can you identify this funny looking bug? -- LEAFHOPPER

[New Arkansas Gardener]

This bug is on my sunflowers, and I am not sure if it is a good one or bad one. Please help.

https://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q640/KerriHoover/2012-05-12_19-44-44_380.jpg

[PunkRotten]

Looks like a Leaf Hopper. They are bad.

[applestar]

Yep, that the colorful kind I usually don't start seeing until it gets hotter. Right now, I'm mostly seeing the light green kind or their young.

Are you also finding/did you find earlier in the season what looks like sticky bubbles of spit in some of your plants? --called "spittle bugs" those are nymphs of leafhoppers. They are everywhere in my garden right now. They don't seem to have a preference -- mint, radicchio, turnip, lemonbalm....

If you scoop off the "spittle" and smear it you'll find the soft, pale bug.

When I'm watering with the hose-end sprayer, I wash the spit and the bug off. Sometimes, that's enough to expose them to predators they are hiding from in their "spittle" nest.

[New Arkansas Gardener]

Thank you! I looked all over can couldn't find one that looks like this. I did look up leafhopper and mine look similar. The abdomen is very red. Maybe they are more colorful this early because we had a very mild winter???

I appreciate your help. Now I need to go get rid of those blasted things!

[New Arkansas Gardener]

By the way, I didn't find anything until I found the bug itself-several of them.