if they look like this, they are aphids:

oh - and as for advice ... get rid of them if you can, but if it happens to be around the flowers, be very concious what you use to remove them, many pesticides will also injure or kill bees and other insects that are extremely beneficial.

here are some ideas to get you started: LINK

I have the same situation and my friend said it was an assassin bug nymph (well a group of them). They were all clustered on the leaf. Here are mine:

Here is a link that might be useful: Assassin bug nymph

Here's my post on the little guys last year. They swarmed my tomatoes. They didn't seem to harm to the tomatoes, but **WARNING** if they're the same as mine, THEY BITE! And it HURTS!

This year, I found them (a nest, I presume) in my deck when I cleaned it to restain. They've since filtered out of there and I've seen a few in my herb bed and a few about 20 yards away near some monkey grass.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Assassins

They are assassin bugs, there are a lot around here right now. Any insecticide will kill them, including organic ones.

GGG

But aren't assassin bugs beneficial? They eat other bugs including aphids. Why would you want to kill them?

I ain't sayin' I'm killing mine. But I work in a place where I see people who get the "yucks" about bugs every day - and they wanna kill them.

GGG

assassin bugs kill caterpillars. So that's good or bad depending on if you want caterpillars (butterflys) or not. But if you do want caterpillars, you should spray anyway.

GGG-just checkin. :-) I'm way past the "yucks" on bugs. Now the mostly decomposed lizard that drown in my make-shift rain barrel that I unknowningly picked up yesterday...that's a different story!!!!

Buford-good to know about the assassins taking out the caterpillars. That might explain my lack of butterflies last year.