Tiny Black Flying Beetles Are Invading 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!

These same beetles just decimated my Mexican Heather. Now I could not believe it since that is such a hardy plant and always looks great through thick and thin. It is just stalks now. They did it so quickly. I dusted with Sevin dust 5 per cent and the next day they were gone, but now they came back in another part of the yard and I dusted there yesterday evening but it came a shower right after so I don't know the outcome yet. I'd be interested in knowing more about these "pests" also. Maybe someone knows. Jenny

It sounds like Japanese beetles
http://images.google.com/images?q=Japanese%20beetle&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

They are smaller than a ladybug...

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

This might be it...the Altica species

This message was edited Jun 5, 2004 2:54 PM

That is a good link. It could be any of those little beetles. I don't even care what kind. I just want to get rid of it. It is moving from one place to another in my yard. Each time I get rid of it it shows up another place.

I sprayed Neem on them tonight...they began flying everywhere - in my hair, my shirt...I got a lot of them, but I know it is going to be a long battle.

You might be dealing with Elm bugs, I don't know if that is the real name for them or not, but that is what my dad calls them. Check to see if you have any Elm trees in the area and look at the leaves. If the leaves look like lace, the elm bug has attacked it and your flowers. That's what happened to me a couple of weeks ago. We're going to have to get rid of that tree, but not until winter. It's shading my flower garden and I don't want my plants to fry in the sun.

Normally I would rather not use pesticides, but I went to Walmart and got a pesticide to get rid of bugs. I got the one that attaches to the end of the garden hose and hosed down my garden and what I could reach of the lower limbs of the tree. I did not expect it to eradicate them since I couldn't reach the whole tree, but it almost did. My theory is that the bugs that did not get hosed, tried to eat on the leaves that did get hosed and went ahead and died. For a few days, we didn't see ONE Elm bug, it was such a relief.

Shearpamala, that's a GREAT link. Bookmarked4life

It is a great link isn't it? I typed in small black beetles and it came up on google. I'm going to go spray Neem again, because I see the ones that survivied have moved on to other plants and have already caused damage even in this short time. These bugs are horrible!