the first one is a stink bug. not sure about the others.

#1 is a stink bug I see 5 or 6 per day and suck them up or crush them.

Jo

Dodemeister, thanks for sharing your pictures. I can relate to your feelings. The veggies are pretty, the bugs look ok, but please keep them. I have plenty of my own.

Larry

It's hard to tell with no reference to size, but I don't think that's a flea beetle. If you want to see flea beetles, plant eggplant. They are very very small, really about the size of a flea--or smaller.

Dodemeister, does the bug you thought might be a flea beetle have a black/iridescent purple'ish, blue'ish look to it? I have no idea what they are but I found a ton of them in one of my maiden grass plants transplated earlier this spring. Hope someone can ID it for both of us.

Dody,

I agree with Dorothy that your beetle is way too big to be a flea beetle. Flea beetles are so small I rarely see them even if I am seeing some flea beetle holes in plant leaves.

There are over 400,000 known species of beetles (and some scientists believe there may be as many as a million species), and I bet I can only identify about 15 of them by looking at them. Often, the best clue to what they are is the time of year you see them and the plants you find them on.

I've linked bugguide.net's beetle pages for you. You likely will see quite a few beetles there that "might" be the one you have.

In our yard and garden, the two small black beetles I see most often are black lady bugs and willow beetles. Since some beetles are beneficial, I never do anything to kill them or repel them unless I witness them damaging plants right in front of my eyes. There are plenty of destructive beetles, including Mexican Bean Beetles Cucumber Beetles, Japanese Beetles and Colorado Potato Beetles, but lady bugs come in many colors and they are helpful as are many of the ground beetles.

At this time of year, I really don't even worry about whatever bugs are still around because the cold weather will take care of them soon enough.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Bugguide.net