Please help ID this destructive insect!!

20 years ago

I have searched and searched...probably something simple, but this little bugger (multiplied by 100's) is destroying my freshly WS'd Coreopsis....is now moving to my Shastas and Rudbeckias...

The shell has a slight metallic gloss to it. They are very small...that is a coreopsis stem they are perched on in the bottom pic.

Please help me identify so that I can kick it in the can!!!

Thanks!!

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
20 years ago
You should post this in the PEST forum. I'd get out there with some commercial insecticidal soap....like right NOW! Don't know who your critter is, though. Seems bigger than a flea beetle (of which there are many species).
webkat5
Original Author
20 years ago
I tapped many of them into a bowl of soapy water...don't want to use insecticides if I can help it (unless it is a systemic)...I have many beneficials in that garden I am trying to protect...

I will go post of Pest forum....
Related Professionals
Daytona Beach Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Wenatchee Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Victoria Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Gainesville Landscape Contractors · Sugar Land Landscape Contractors · Enfield Landscape Contractors · Alexandria Landscape Contractors · Rochester Landscape Contractors · Cambridge Tile and Stone Contractors · Elkton Tile and Stone Contractors · Zanesville Tile and Stone Contractors · Winona Tile and Stone Contractors · Newport Tile and Stone Contractors · Tucson Tile and Stone Contractors · Bend Tile and Stone Contractors
mccommas
20 years ago
Does it look like a gold ladybug? I can't really tell from the picture.

Does it look like this?

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/jauwaert/Beetle_0007.jpg

ha ha just a joke.

does your perp look like this? you have to scroll down to find the gold beetle.

According to the website, its called Metriona bicolor (Chrysomelidae).

I bought a potato vine just because I saw one of these on it. I was amazed how pretty it was. It look just like a living gold beetle like Joan Rivers sells on her show. -- Only its tiny and alive!

The girl at the store told me I could spray the vine to get rid of them but in fact I wanted to attract them so thats why I bought the vine. Haven't seen any though.

I certainly would not want as many as you got.
webkat5
Original Author
20 years ago
That's not it...it is only slighly metallic, too.

They can't even ID it over on the Pests forum...so I guess this is one odd bug.
mccommas
20 years ago
-- Whoops, sorry, I did not post the hyperlink in my message. This is it.

http://www.phasmidsincyberspace.com/LocalAnimalPictures.htm

I am talking about the bug on the guy's finger but I guess its not it since you said it was only slightly metalic in appearence. This baby looks like 24 kt gold.
anney
20 years ago
webkat

It sort of looks like the beetle linked below. In particular, the "abrupt, sharply margined apical declivity" (the way its back end abruptly drops off). What do you think?

They're supposed to feed on woody vegetation but have been seen elsewhere.

It may be this one instead: Phaedon desotonis Balsbaugh (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), a Coreopsis (Asteraceae) pest new to Florida. You don't say where you live, but it's a pest to Coreopsis.

If you can catch one, I'd suggest you take it to the country extension agency in your area and get them to identify it. Take the pictures, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Asian Ambrosia Beetle