What are these spiky looking bugs on my (struggling) garden plant? - eviltoast

I noticed today that one of my struggling garden plants is absolutely covered in bugs. I have no idea if those two things are related (we had a massive drought), but I wanted to find out what these little dudes are, and whether they’re friend or foe. Any thoughts?

Edited to add: located in western Europe.

picture of a branch with about 10 spiky bugs on it

  • Foon@beehaw.orgOP
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    1 year ago

    Oh interesting, would these be the larvae then? A quick Google tells me that we have over 60 different types of native ladybugs here, so I’m gonna have to do some searching. Thanks.

    And yes, I realise bugs all have their role to play and aren’t inherently good or bad. But I was looking for “is it likely that these clustering bugs are killing my plant”, i.e. are they a foe in this situation.