Tiny Black Flying Beetles Are Invaiding My Garden

They are very small and beetle-like, black with a green metallic irridescence, and they fly. It is a heavy infestation. They are mostly on my Purple Loosestife and now my Roses, but slowly taking over my garden... I have tried to look them up, but can't seem to identify them. I have some Neem, and wondered if that or insecticidal soap would work? If I knew what they were it would help me to know what to use!

Altho not tiny , maybe Japanese Beetle ?

They are smaller than a ladybug...

http://www.gardensafari.net/english/145javabeetles.htm?/english/weevils.htm

This might be them...The Altica species

This message was edited Jun 5, 2004 2:53 PM

I have a bug that is yellow/green and black a poor picture is shown. This has devastated my yarrow, the kittys catnip and my russian sage. You can see the size compared to the penny. Sorry the photo is not better but the bug is too small to get a good shot.

Joy

Looks like what we call asparagus beetle .

Thanks scooterbug, I just looked it up on google and it doesn't look like the bug we have. They are crafty little beggers, they run to the otherside of the leaf as soon as I get close to them....Joy

Grrrr........Just what we need! Intelligent bugz =(

It might be a four-lined plant bug. We get the main generation in early June in Michigan. They make small round dots all over plant leaves, and those areas turn brown. Enough and the leaf is ruined. They do run fast. The immature ones are red.

Can't tell anything from that picture Joy, but that sure sounds like leafhopper personality to me! lol Shifty little buggers. Oh, and shearpamela, could they be the immature japanese beetles? I have the adults and the babies and the babies just look like mini ones. Atleast that's what I've assumed they are.

Sorry again how bad the picture was, after we ripped the plants out dh told me about the macro setting on the camera. I must admit that these bugs sound more like the ones described by kneff. It was a green/yellow stripe running down the abdomen.

ecobioangie, I don't think they were immature japanese beetles we have had lots of those over the years and are different shaped.

Thank you all for your help, we cleared that bed out and have started anew with not a sign of the little begger so far.

I googled and got this image for a 'four lined plant bug'. This him?

That is him!!!!!!! I have not seen another one yet. Now, how to get rid of them IF they return?

Thank you ecobioangie, you're a peach!

You're more than welcome! :)

http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/vegpest/cucs/4line.htm#Management

http://davesgarden.com/terms/go/2135/

http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/cespubs/hyg/html/199905d.html

I've not seen little black beetles, but tiny red ones at the he-doublehockey sticks out of my mint and some other plants. They left them pock-marked with little black spots where the leaf surfaces were chewed. Grrrrrr!

Mine turned out to be Primrose Flea Beatles....they also love purple loosestrife I found out!

Could you post a pic?

http://citybugs.tamu.edu/IntheNews_Details.asp?ID_Key=404 Here is a link from the Neil Sperry webletter...

The beetles that got my plants were smaller. Of course, now it's Japanese beetles all over everything! :X

Ohh, thanks Pamela. I found one of these on my coreopsis (which is close to my loosetrife) a few weeks back. I have not had a whole lot of damage, but did try to figure out what he was without luck.