I'm not familiar with all the in's & out's of the bugs one deals with in a Florida garden, but I do identify insects for a living. I'm certain that's a scarab beetle, but I have no idea what particular species it is (& there are very many). If it's not leaving holes in your roses' leaves or flower petals, then I think it's probably a safe guess that they're eating the pollen in your roses' flowers. If so, they may well not be doing any real harm to your roses at all (other than being kind of unsightly).

But if they haven't damaged the flowers, they must be some other kind of beetle.

That Hoplia beetle sure looks alot like the ones I have. I was also wondering if this solves another problem I am having. Every morning when I go outside to check my garden, my lawn looks like a war zone, there are 2 to 3 inch holes freshly dug all over the yard. I am really getting quite annoyed with whatever is doing this, not so much for the lawn but it has also come pretty close to digging around freshly planted roses, and now it becomes all out war......... I haven't been able to catch whatever is doing this but if I do.....I'm thinking maybe racoon, armadillo or possum.I think they are probably looking for grubs. I will have to get those beneficial nematodes and see if that solves both my problems.

Cla, I'm seeing the same holes in my yard where the beetles are emmerging. We applied compost thickly on the lawn area in late Feb. and the grass hasn't filled in completely so it's easy to see the holes and little piles of dirt they leave.

Also my dogs are busy digging holes in the lawn which is something new for them. I think they are hearing the beetles as they move toward the surface. Also been noticing a lot of grubs when planting.

They may be after the pollen, but in the process they chew the base of the petals and leave the rose in tatters. Sometimes they enter from the sides. There can be as many as 6 or 7 beetles on one rose. They've been called the Japanese beetle of the south.

Here are some pictures I took today of the beetles on Prairie Harvest ...

I couldn't bear to wait until more gathered to take the picture ...
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You can imagine what this rose would look like by tomorrow, especially after his buddies joined him ...
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They also love yellow Louisanna iris. Sometimes I catch more on them than on the roses.

In years past I ordered beneficial nematodes from Peaceful Valley. There are more than one kind of nematode. Some for sandy soil, some for clay, and others that move through the soil in search of grubs. The package I bought locally doesn't say what kind of nematodes they contain. More expensive from Peaceful Valley, especially if you get two kinds, which I did, but you get a LOT more, like 10 million which are shipped directly from the supplier so you know they are fresh. For me it was worth it. I had enough to spray over the chain link fence into the neighbor's yards :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Peaceful Valley Farm Supply beneficial nematodes

It's not unusual for the babies of Scarab beetles to be the "grubs" that chew on the roots of your lawn grasses (for instance, that's what Japanese beetle grubs do). If it's the time of year when this beetle emerges from the ground then yes, it certainly makes sense that there would be holes in the lawn where they emerged (especially if those holes are about as wide as the adult beetles, whereas I think skunks, raccoons, etc. would probably leave holes about as wide as their paws). If you previously applied beneficial nematodes to control lawn grubs (or perhaps milky spore disease, but I'm speculating here, I'm not speaking from firm knowledge), I can easily imagine that a 2-year drought might have damaged your "biocontrol" efforts, leaving many fewer nematodes (or viable milky spore disease spores) alive to go after the beetle grubs, and so now that it's time for those beetle survivors to emerge you're seeing more of them than normal.

Roselee, thanks for the photos, those look exactly like the critters on my roses. I think I will try the nematodes, from what I understand the beetles only last for a month or so, but they can ruin a long awaited first flush of roses in the spring.
York Rose, I'm not talking about small holes in my lawn, I'm talking about holes 3-4 inches deep and probably 3 inches in diameter with a pile of soil next to each. Looking more like something digging down into the soil rather than something trying to dig it's way out.
I try to go out and fill in the holes everyday, but I fear my poor little pomeranian is going to break a leg falling into a hole I may have missed. I know she is not the culprit digging because she only goes out long enough to do her business and comes right back inside. This happens at night that is why I'm thinking racoon, armadillo or possum, something that is nocturnal.I also have noticed quite a few grubs when doing any digging in the garden.
I thank all of you who have given me advice, it is greatly appreciated.

The larger holes are probably an armadillo. They are rooting for the grubs. Stay up later than usual, and you may see them.

I didn't think that Hoplia beetles lived anywhere outside the big valley in California. And the ones we had there had a bit of a gold sheen to them, plus they did destroy the center of the roses and eat the stamens, leaving poop behind.

Probably you've got a different, and hopefully more benign beetle. In my gardens, hoplias went after any fragrant, light-colored flower, not just roses.

--Ron

Yep, those holes are courtesy of the armadillo after your grubs AND earthworms. I never heard of hoplia but did find scarab beetles last year when I googled. Their grubs looked just like my grubs - fat and ugly. I take glee in popping them on my shovel when I'm digging. I've seen a couple of beetles so far, but it's early. I may get those nematodes. I looked last year but didn't bite on them. Also, I'm going to start carrying a latex glove in my pocket when I go out in the garden. Can't stand touching those things, but I do have the intense need to kill them.

What really grossed me out today were two humongous stink bugs (big footed leaf bugs). My gosh, they were 4 times bigger than the ones last year. They could make a horror movie out these things. I killed one but the other got away. Drat! They were at least an inch and a half long. Gag me!

Sherry

They are not Hoplia beetles; rather, they are flower beetles -- Euphoria sepulcralis (Fabricius), and are common in central and south Florida. They are attracted to light colors, so one way to get rid of a lot of them is to put a white 5-gallon paint bucket or similar container in the garden, with a few inches of water in the bottom. The adults will be attracted, fall in, and drown.

Thanks, Malcolm, gotta find a white bucket now.

Sherry

Thanks Malcolm. I looked up Euphoria sepulcralis (Fabricius) and it says they occur on the East coast and especially in Florida. Hoplia beetles seem to occur in the Western states. From their pictures they look a lot alike to me, their behavior on roses are the same and so are the remedies. I wonder then which ones I've got. I don't want to give someone the wrong answer if asked. Maybe York Rose can tell us.

I figured I got them from potted roses shipped in from California, but when I took them to the county extension agency to be identified I noticed that they had them in their front gardens eating roses too! BTW, nobody there knew what they were. I left them, but no one called me back. This was several years ago.

Unfortunately, as I hinted, I can recognize when a beetle is in the Scarab family, but the native American Scarabs I don't know all that well.

My apologies..... :(

(My job makes me more familiar with the non-native pests than it does with the native pests, but even then, as I mentioned before, the Scarab family is one of the largest beetle families, and there are tons of them all over the country. I've only ever lived in the Northeast. That means I can readily recognize when a beetle is a Scarab beetle, but that doesn't necessarily mean I know which particular native Scarab species I'm looking at.)

Thanks York Rose. I guess for now I have "Blackish Flower Eating Beetles." Probably 40 or more have been picked off light colored roses and yellow Louisiana irises the last couple of days. Found one on a yellow snap dragon and one in a bucket of water. They prefer fragrant roses.

I bet if you called your County Extension office they would have a good idea about what they are.

Yes York Rose, I'm sure they are aware of it now. I was talking to some people today and they said there was an article in a San Antonio newspaper about five new bugs here and the flower eating beetle was one of them. I picked about 20 more off the flowers today and yesterday.

I am in west central Wisconsin, and have black beetles in my pink knock out rose, this is the 2nd year and they totally destroy the flower to a shrivelled mess. I just cut off all the destroyed blossoms and bugs and put them in my burn barrel. I will try the white bucket of death...hey it worked for chipmunks! Why not bugs. Nasty things.