How I Became a Garden Vigilante: My War Against the Tiny Green Mafia

A terrace gardener's descent into sanctioned bug murder When invasive stink bugs turn your peaceful tomato sanctuary into a crime scene, sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands (literally). Meet Nezara viridula. Also known as the Southern Green Stink Bug. Also known as the reason I now have trust issues in my terrace garden. So there I was, peacefully tending to my three tomato plants (grown lovingly from seed, we're talking proper horticultural parenting here), when I noticed them. Tiny. Brightly coloured. Shiny. Smug. Nezara viridula had arrived. The Teenage Delinquent PhaseHere's where it gets slightly embarrassing for my insect identification skills: these little menaces weren't actually green. Despite the name, the Southern Green Stink Bug only turns green in adulthood. The colourful criminals on my tomatoes were in their third instar, which is essentially the teenage phase. An instar, for those who didn't major in Things That Eat My Vegetables, is a growth stage…