I had not seen any Junk Bugs in our gardens so far this year until now. Some call them garbage bugs, or even trash bugs. We noticed this one working it’s way around the plants when were checking our gardens. It is actually a lacewing larva or sometimes they just get called a “junk bug” because of the junk it carries around on its back for disguise. The junk bug is actually a killer. The heap is often made up of dead bodies from the prey it eats. The junk bug, also known as an aphid lion, is a voracious predator, common around the world. The bug is actually the larval stage of the green lacewing, a delicate and lovely flying insect. The tiny larvae comes up with all sorts of creative disguises to confuse predators. I have seen these in other gardens, but never tried to find out what they were until a couple of years ago. But they do make interesting photo subjects!