Unidentified (plague?) species which are at least cohabiting with ants... in my chiles in Mexico

Hi there,

Struggling with choosing the correct forum so sorry if there is a more accurate one...

I found these strange looking insects sitting in my chiles in my starting permaculture garden in mexico. In the attachments you can find images.

i identify basicly 3 creatures... firstly a tiny ant species, then most obviously a relatively big spiked insect, and lastly a kind of leaf-alike (but also with some spikes) instect. I found them today for the first time sitting on one of my plants. I can't really say if they are eating my plant yet... the ants seem really busy, but the other insects are kind of just sitting around.

Can somebody tell me if they are part of the same ant family, or if not... what they are, and what they do?

Any suggestion is welcome....

Many Thanks!  

I think it's a treehopper and nymphs - solanaceous treehopper or keeled treehopper in two stages of development.

Hi Mercy! i think you are right! the mutalism with the ants seems to work out so... how much of a threat are those to my plants? I like to leave them at peace if that is at all an option.

They aren't terrible but I feel like there are kind of a lot of them on the plant. I did read that the best approach is either manually remove the nymphs or squirt them all off the stem with water. Maybe a few will make their way back and should be harmless, but I'd probably try to discourage that volume of "sap suckers" on any one plant.

thanks, i removed a good lot of them with water. but tried to leave some... trying to follow the advise of not completely exterminating pests