I found these on my tomato plant today. The eggs are copper and pearl colored. They look like a string of pearls. ( photo / image / picture from Ren2012's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Ren2012's Garden )
They look like a pearl on your tomato. I think that's not from bugs the eggs on bugs are smaller compare to the egg on that picture. I think it's from caterpillar's eggs.
Caterpillars do not lay eggs. Moths and butterflies lay eggs that become caterpillars which then become more moths and butterflies. If not, you will have to take it up with science teacher in high school. You could scrape them into a jar and put a lid on it to see what comes out. If it is a good bug, you can turn them loose. If not you can go ahead and kill them.
See the below link. They are squash bug eggs. I have since been privy to seeing them hatch and having to chase the babies around before they decimate the tomatoes!!! The eggs look like pearls when they are new (I even found the mom right under the eggs). By the next morning the eggs were darker and and more reddish. http://cherthollowfarm.com/species/squash-bug/
Agreed on the life cycle of moths and caterpillars. I didn't remove the eggs until I was sure what they were. They are definitely squash bugs so they were removed the very next morning.
Caterpillars don't lay eggs. Moths and butterflies do. I am familiar with caterpillar eggs as I have the good and bad ones in my garden year round (even in the winter). They usually just lay one egg at a time not clusters like the squash bug & other bugs.
Have you seen the size of the bugs that live in Florida? Because our winters are mild nothing dies in the winter so we grow bigger badder bugs! LOL. The squash bugs here can grow to 2+ inches long. They get HUGE as does most of our bugs. I'm thinking the bigger the bug, the bigger the egg.
That is another reason I love WINTER. At least it gets rid of some excess insects over the winter if you are lucky enough to have plenty of snow and cold. [though they are taking it to extremes up north this year]
Yeah. 6+ months of winter is a little much. My northern friends have been visiting early this year. : D